Many of us will make a New Year’s Resolution, and it’s so often about the way we look, our shape and size, or how much we weigh. Often we can have waves of guilt for having “over indulged” over the festive season. When we feel like this, we tend to focus on our negatives; not liking the way we look, believing that everyone around us is thin, beautiful, confident, and wear their sales bargain with style. Our harshest critics are our ourselves; our inner critic voice getting louder and louder.
Something else we seem to do, is to set ourselves unrealistic goals, so why do we do it? Maybe it’s time to pause and stop. Let’s try on some positives and make realistic plans how to move forward. To start, find 3 positives about yourself, write them down on a piece of paper or post-it notes and put them where you can see them!
• Make only one resolution. Your chances of success are greater when you channel energy into changing just one aspect of your behaviour.
• Take some time and think about what you want to achieve.
• Do your thing and think about what you really want out of life.
• Break your goal into a series of steps, focusing on creating sub-goals that are concrete, measurable and time-based.
• Tell your friends and family about your goals. You're more likely to get support and want to avoid failure.
• To stay motivated, make a checklist of how achieving your resolution will help you.
• Give yourself a small reward whenever you achieve a sub-goal, which will help to motivate you and give you a sense of progress.
• Expect to revert to your old habits from time to time. Treat any failure as a temporary setback rather than a reason to give up altogether.