New Years Resolutions are easy to make.
Keeping them is a totally different matter.
Too often by February many of you are back to the same old habits and behaviors. There are millions of pounds not lost, thousands of gym memberships lying fallow, and way too many cigarette packs being sold. Some of you may be thinking “why even bother with those New Years Resolutions this year.” In the battle of wills, you always seem to be on the losing side!
So, what if you knew that there was a way to keep those New Years Resolution.
Are you curious?
IT IS POSSIBLE to keep those resolutions and change your life! You just need a new strategy that will help you stay on track. Here are five tips on how you can make your New Years Resolutions stick.
Visualize
It’s hard to make any kind of change if you only rely on your conscious, rational mind. You can have all the right reasons, but if you don’t engage your subconscious, then long lasting change will be difficult.
Think back to the last time you were able to make a significant change in your life. You may have daydreamed or
fantasized about what it would be like before you even took action to make that change.
Our habits and behaviors are stored in the subconscious, and the subconscious is resistant to change. Logic and rationale alone aren’t enough. You must communicate with your subconscious using both images and your imagination if you want change to happen. This is the very same stuff our dreams and fantasies are made of!
So when you are working on your New Years Resolutions, allow yourself to delve into your imagination! Take time to create vivid images of those things you want to change.
Empower Your Resolutions with Desire
Visualizing is important. But you also have to fuel your resolutions with the proper emotion. Incorporating emotions is like adding color to a black and white movie. It gives it depth and power which will help bring your intention into form.
For example, if you want to increase exercise because you think you should exercise more; your resolution will be short lived. This is because there’s no internal fuel to keep the desire alive through the boredom, distractions, and the busy lives we all seem to be leading. However, when you imagine how much better you will feel, how much more energy you will have, and how much better you’ll feel about yourself- then you’ll have the inner fire that will guarantee success.
The importance of passion
My grievance with The Secret is that it infers that manifesting simply involves visioning what you want, feeling the emotions of having it, and sitting around waiting for it to happen. WRONG! – Envisioning your intentions and fueling them with emotions is central to successful manifesting! But doing the work, taking action, is a must!
Self-discipline, however, is not about ‘banging you head against a wall.’ It does require, however, that you are committed to doing the work, being consistent, and following through.
This is where passion comes in. Doing the work can be grueling if you aren’t passionate about what you’re trying to accomplish. A runner can feel lukewarm about running, but will run anyway because they know it will help keep their weight down and build sustaining power.
On the other hand, a runner can feel passionate about running because they love the feel of strength in their legs, the speed of gliding over the land, and the ‘high’ of stretching their endurance to capacity. It’s the passion that fuels long lasting change. It’s like adding HD to a movie.
Achievability and believability
Sometimes our New Years Resolutions fail even though we visualize the outcome, feel the success of having it, and energize it with passion. This is because deep down inside we don’t believe it’s possible.
When this happens we’ve usually taken “the sky’s the limit” track, rather than making our resolution achievable and believable. Maybe you won’t win a triathlon. But, maybe you can find a running buddy who inspires you to get out and run several times a week. Maybe you can’t run five or ten miles, but you can start with a mile or two.
Doing what is believable and achievable is enough. It helps you overcome the self-defeating thoughts of “I’m not good enough so why even try.”
Stay Positive
Implementing new behaviors can bring up a lot of emotions. Believe it or not, there is a part of us that assumes keeping everything the same is in our best interest. So even when you really want to change, you may feel tired, bored with the effort, irritated because you aren’t doing it right, or it’s taking too long, or you may even feel anxious. These are resistances, and they are normal. But they don’t need to stop your progress!
Right now I’m on my fourth day of a green smoothie cleanse. It was easy to think about doing the cleanse and to plan, shop and make the first days’ worth of smoothies. Now that I’m into the fourth day I’m already having fantasies of grilled steak, a Starbuck’s latte, or some hot sweet potato French fries. But I hang on to the memory of
how hard it was to zip up my favorite pants, and how great I’m going to feel when I can zip them up again with comfort and ease. Then I down another smoothie with a smile!
Cravings, resistance, negative self-talk, it’s all going to happen when you’re trying to make a change. So when you have these thoughts or feelings, just acknowledge them as old behaviors and habits. Then focus on how good you’re going to feel when you achieve you goal, or succeed at putting into action your new behavior or habit. I already know how good I’m going to feel when I can zip up those pants again! That’s what is keeping me on track.
By implementing these five simple tips you’ll find that you can keep those New Year’s Resolutions with greater resolve. Remember to:
- Visualize
- Empower with desire
- Infuse with passion
- Make your resolution achievable and believable
- Stay positive
If you find that you still lack the motivation to accomplish your goals, please contact me for a free 30-minute consultation to see how transformational life coaching with hypnotherapy can help you achieve success in 2016.
Call Joy at 415-819-8769 or email Joy@joyreichard.com today.
For more information, visit my website at healingwithjoy.net.