It’s New Year’s Day, maybe you’re nursing a hangover, or enjoying leftover Christmas treats, and your hopes are high for the year ahead, telling yourself you will smash all your 2022 goals! Flash forward to the end of February and many people have let go of their resolutions, falling back into old habits and wanting to remove any restraints on their lives.
If this sounds familiar, maybe it’s time to remember why you set those resolutions in the first place and consider how you would be feeling now if you had followed through. Would you feel healthier? Happier? More enriched? Rather than waiting 10 months to start over, why not start again now, but maybe be a little more realistic.
Resolutions can often be very strict and allow no room for failure. Why not reframe your resolutions to make them easier to fulfil. Rather than challenging yourself to go to the gym 5 times a week, ask yourself to move as often as you can. Instead of restricting bad foods, why not try to add more healthy foods into your diet.
It can also help to write a list of your goals and link them to how you will feel when you achieve them. For example, if one goal is to read more, imagine how you would feel if you had succeeded in this. Maybe you would feel more knowledgeable, or more inspired.
Some people find that instead of setting themselves goals, setting values is easier to stick to. This is because there is no end point to your values, you are constantly striving to fulfil those values and the focus is a lot more on personal growth rather than pre-defined stages. If this sounds like something that would work for you, look at the goals you made earlier this year and transform them into the values that a person who had completed these goals would have.
Whatever way you choose to revisit your New Year’s resolutions, make sure you do so in a way that works for you and helps you get to where you want to be, without putting too much pressure on yourself!