Almost all of us have had the experience of wanting to begin a new year resolving to improve, to do some things better than we have before. It is natural to have hope, to want to believe we aren鈥檛 stuck in the ways we currently behave, and yet, all of us have the experience that we haven鈥檛 done too well with our past resolutions.
Truthfully, New Year鈥檚 Resolutions just don鈥檛 work. They have a specific, rare start date, they are too broad of a generalization, they are not measurable and there are too many promises made.
It is important to focus on making real change, instead of empty one-time promises to yourself. Relying solely on your resolutions is not a great way to make permanent change in your life.
If you have a goal in mind to improve your life, start in this moment. Make sure that it is a goal that is realistic and something that will truly empower your life. Don鈥檛 make goals based off what celebrities, your friends or even your families are doing in their own lives. Life-changing goals should be different for each person, depending on the circumstances in their lives. It is also important to make a concrete, measurable goal and break down your big goal into smaller goals. Measure your progress.
Don鈥檛 try to solve all of your problems at once and be okay with the fact that no one is perfect, some things might fail the first time around and it is okay to start again, regardless of the date.
It is also a good idea to keep your goal to yourself. There鈥檚 nothing that you will gain by announcing your goals to the world anyway (or on Facebook). Talking about your goals to others reduces its value and makes you less likely to achieve it.
When our lives run at the pace that they do, it is easy to get caught up in endless thoughts and forget to take time to enjoy life to the fullest. Thinking is one of man鈥檚 greatest abilities, allowing us to learn, communicate, teach, or dream about future possibilities. However, sometimes it can be easy to get caught up working about those future possibilities, instead of embracing the possibilities available in the present.
When we make our lives complex, the responsibility of keeping our goals broadens, the days get busier, the weeks speed up, and excuses become frequent as we try to catch up with the important tasks in our lives. So, it is important to set some reminders on your phone or diary, to stop and breathe, take in your surroundings and pay attention to your senses.
It is important to try to remain calm and collected when faced with challenges of obtaining our goals, instead of exploding over simple things that might make us frustrated. Those challenges are just a part of life, and how we deal with them defines us at a true nature. When you overcome a challenge, it becomes easier to achieve your end goal, and to truly feel accomplished at the end of your journey.
