“The Best New Year’s Resolution I Can Think Of Is To Find Out Who You Are, What Brought You Here, And Who You Want To Be Instead.”

Most of our new year’s resolutions comprise of getting fit, quitting smoking, reading, better organization, taking up a new hobby, travelling more, etc. But often we fail to consistently back up our new year’s resolution with action. And without the steady action in the direction of your desire, nothing changes.

The first major thing we need to realize is that the new year is not the only day to take up a resolution. It can be on any given day and in fact, to a large extent, I hate new year’s resolutions. Hate is a strong word that I rarely use, but there’s truth in this context for me (which I speak about more on my YouTube channel), because people delay their goals constantly and wait for ‘that day’ to begin.

What’s done is done, your new year’s resolution is set already, so let’s dive into how we can make this manifest in your life. Here are a few ideas to ponder:

• Avoid selecting a resolution that is excessively difficult (if you haven’t already): If you want to get fit and make a resolution to start exercising, but know that deep down inside that you may never really make a serious effort towards it, you are most probably going to fail. It’s therefore advisable to remain honest with yourself.  An unachievable challenging goal is bound to result in failure, and act as an impediment to new resolutions in the future.
• Cut the roots: It is important to understand the root causes of a bad behavior that you want to eliminate, before making the resolution to stop the bad habit. Understanding the psychological and physiological root causes can help better prepare you to weed out the bad habit by its roots, therefore successfully eliminating it from your life.
• Have a clearly laid out strategy: Having no plan or a vague plan most often results in failure, especially for someone ready to overcome generalized anxiety. You must be fully aware of the goal. There should be a clearly structured plan with time-tables and progress charts; and you should be inspired enough to keep following through with this plan. This can help ensure that you stick to your resolution, and eventually after several days/weeks of unrelenting pursuit of the resolution, the act will become a habit.
• Stop stalling: This aspect is rather tricky because it’s possible to get trapped in preparation mode and keep stalling on the start mode. It’s important to make preparations on the plans, tools, resources, etc as a well-prepared start will ensure that you are better equipped to handle and overcome the varied challenges that will show up along the way. The best way is to have an end date of preparations, as well as a start date for action on this well laid out plan.
• Reward yourself: Once you have hit a specific point in your new year’s resolution, or actually achieved the resolution, feel free to reward yourself for the progress. This will help ensure that the emotional drive stays high. Self-esteem and self-confidence rises when we become more aware of our progress rather than our setbacks, and the pleasant reminder of the reward can propel you onto newer, more challenging resolutions in the future.

Share Your New Year’s Resolution Below, And Well As Your Best Pieces Of Advice For Others To Follow Through.