The calendar has rolled over to the new year. A lot of us spent the last night of the year staying up late with friends or family. Some of us may have just gone on to bed and not stayed up (no shame in that game friend). A lot of us probably spent the last several days of 2018 trying to decide what our New Years Resolutions would be for 2019. Did you make any? If so, think of what they were while reading the rest of this post.
Resolutions are inherently good things. They encourage us to look at our lives and decide what we need to change or what we need to do a little better than we have in the past. The real problem with resolutions is how we view them and how we determine whether or not we are living up to them.
Here are 5 tips to help you have a healthy view of your resolutions and to help you end 2019 feeling proud of yourself for growing and making healthy changes throughout the year.
1. Create an Action Plan to go along with your resolutions. Did you resolve to lose weight? Break that goal down into smaller more manageable steps like drinking more water, increasing exercise, cooking at home more often, learning to cook healthier foods, tracking my progress. If you don’t have a plan in place or work to create one you will likely find yourself a few days into the year deciding to give up because you haven’t dropped all the pounds you wanted to in the first week or because you messed up one day and think, “why should I even bother”. You need a plan to follow to help you get there!!
2. Implement Your Action Plan Step By Step. It is very overwhelming to start a new year and do 5 or 6 things new and different than you have ever done before all at one time. Instead, try pacing yourself and making small changes each week. Once you make one change and get into a routine, then you can begin to add something else. You will see progress, avoid being completely overwhelmed, and gain belief in yourself if you do it little by little instead of all at one time.
3. Be patient with yourself and give yourself time to adjust to each step of your action plan. Rome wasn’t built in a day and changing habits and lifestyles will not happen overnight. Often times we make a resolution and we beat ourselves up when we haven’t lived up to it in it’s entirety by January 5th. Give yourself TIME!!! We used to hear that it takes 21 days to create a habit, but new research is suggesting that it actually may take an average of 66 days! Extend GRACE to YOURSELF. Give yourself room to fail. That isn’t saying that you expect to fail or that you won’t meet your goal, it is just allowing yourself to have a set back without beating yourself up. If you have a set back, just start again, but don’t quit! I don’t believe messing up is failing. I believe the only way that you fail is if you stop trying all together.
4. Find an Accountability Partner. Buddy up with someone else who wants to accomplish the same goals as you this year and RUN WITH THEM!! This could be a friend of family member that you see every week or it could be a Facebook friend that you have never met in person but who you connect with online. Encourage one another along the way. Your accountability partner’s job will not be to point fingers at you when you fall, but to encourage you to get back up, brush yourself off, and keep going! Same for you to them. Be a friend, be an encourager, be for them what you want them to be for you. Cheer each other on and celebrate every victory no matter how small!!
5. Celebrate Your Victories throughout the year, but DO NOT label your resolution a success or failure until the END of the year. Realize that keeping a resolution does not mean changing overnight and achieving it by the end of January. It means working throughout the year to make the changes you need to in order to live a better life throughout the year and to end the year closer to your goal than you started. You will have good days and you will have bad days. That is OK!! That means you are human (just like me). Expect some challenging days. Expect some rough patches; live them, experience them, grow from them, and then get back at it!!
We can do this ya’ll!! No matter what your resolutions are, you can achieve them this year!! If you have a big goal and you need help creating an action plan, send me a message. I would be happy to help you get started!!
Happy New Year friends!! This will be the BEST YEAR YET!!!
My Journey 