Tag Archives: New Year’s Resolutions

Making and Achieving New Year’s Resolutions

Posted by: Coretta Rego, MA, RP, CCC on December 20, 2019 11:59 am
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The hustle and bustle of the holiday season will soon give way to thoughts and plans for the new year. Many of these discussions will invariably touch upon the changes that people plan to make when January arrives. This might include lifestyle changes, like eating better and exercising more, learning how to better manage one’s money, or a desire to pick up a new hobby. Regardless of how we choose to do so, a new year often presents us with an opportunity to reinvent ourselves.

While any day of the year that we choose to make changes to help us live a happier and healthier life is a good day to start, the dawn of a new year is particularly promising. While many a joke has been made about the success (or lack thereof) of new year’s resolutions, many people do find success with making and sustaining changes at this time of year. What sets these people apart from those of us who may be less successful with our new year/new us plans? Much of it comes down to having a plan.

Step 1: Make a resolution

If you are considering overhauling an area of your life in the new year, I would encourage you to start by picking one area. We often overwhelm ourselves by picking too many things to do at one time and it becomes hard to sustain all changes simultaneously. Instead, start with one change. As you start to see success and have been able to maintain this, you can add on another change. The confidence and adrenaline that you experience as a result of succeeding with your first change will build momentum for the next one. Success builds success!

Step 2: Make a plan

Success in any area of life is rarely due to luck, and more due to planning and ongoing hard work. This holds true for whether you are learning to dance, losing weight or building an empire. The reason many of us are unsuccessful with our new year’s resolutions is because we often come up with well intentioned ideas but do not give much thought as to how we will implement them. When we then encounter a challenge with our idea, we do not know how to overcome it, and we often give up.

As an example, let’s look at a frequently cited new year’s resolution: losing weight. Despite how many people cite this as a resolution and the amount of services catered to helping people with this, many (not all) still struggle with accomplishing this goal. The difference between those who succeed and those who struggle is not simply a matter of will power. Having a plan for how to modify your life so it becomes more conducive to losing the weight is an important step towards achieving a positive outcome. Furthermore, the more detailed the plan, the greater the likelihood of success

Plan A: Lose weight. Eat heathier. Exercise more.

Plan B: Lose weight. Eat healthier. In lieu of buying lunch from a fast food place during the work week, pack a home-made lunch which includes fruit as snacks. Meal prep with a friend every Sunday evening to avoid it feeling like a chore. Exercise 3x during the work week. Join the gym at work so that exercising can be done before or after the workday to reduce the likelihood of a missed workout.

While the intended end result is the same, the person who made the second plan is more likely to be successful because they have given thought to how they will implement this plan in their life, including considering potential obstacles and coming up with ways to counter them. It is important to note that plans don’t need to be extravagant, they just need to be specific to how you live your life.

Additionally, when making your plan don’t overlook all the things that you might already be doing that can help you meet your goal. By doing more of these things (or doing them more frequently) change is less overwhelming. For example, perhaps you already bring a homemade lunch to work every day but buy snacks which is where you succumb to the unhealthy options. By packing additional items to your lunch which you already spend time making, it is easier to make a healthy choice when the 3pm craving hits.  Your plan should make you feel empowered and should build upon good things you are already doing.

Step 3: Pace yourself

You have 365 days (and not just until January 31st) to make it your new reality. Be kind to yourself when you stray from the plan. Be patient with yourself when you experience a setback. Celebrate when you achieve smaller milestones as you get closer to the goal.

Happy New year! Happy New(er) You!

Coretta Rego, MA, RP, CCC




*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Welcoming the New Year

Posted by: Dawn Schell on January 13, 2016 12:18 pm
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It’s a new year and that often means people are making resolutions, setting goals and planning ahead.   Each time the calendar rolls around to January ‘hope springs eternal’ as Alexander Pope said. We want to get focused and clear. We want to make changes in our lives. We want to dream new dreams.    How long those resolutions, goals and plans last is another issue altogether!

In the spirit of hope I would like to share some fabulous online tools that one can use to reflect on the year that was and plan for the year to come.

One tool I have used for a number of years is choosing a ‘Word-of-the-Year’. It’s not a resolution or a goal – more of an intention for the year or a way to explore the year ahead or a guide for the year ahead.   If you haven’t yet tried this approach you can find numerous examples in the ‘blog-o-sphere’, Facebook groups or on Pinterest. Just search for “word of the year” and you will find amazingly creative ideas for showcasing one’s word of the year as well as reflections on what the word means to individuals.

There are a myriad of methods to finding and using a word for the year.

Christine Kane, a business coach, offers a Word-of-the-Year discovery tool for free. There is an introduction to the idea, an idea generator and worksheet to guide you through the process of choosing a word for the year and, of course, an action planner. Cause it’s more useful when you identify steps you can take!

Sometimes it’s harder to choose a word than others.   But each time I have chosen one I have found it to be both personally and professionally useful. As Ms. Kane says, “Your word is meant to teach you about you.” The tool is easy to use. The clients I have recommended it to find it to be helpful as they begin a new year. Just FYI – you do have to enter your email address to get this tool.

http://christinekane.com/wordoftheyear

On a similar note Susannah Conway, author/photographer/teacher, offers a helpful free resource titled “Unravelling the Year Ahead 2016”. Her Unravelling e-workbook has thought-provoking questions about the year that was and provides reflecting exercises for the year ahead. Having used this workbook with individual and group clients the feedback is overwhelmingly positive.

http://www.susannahconway.com/2015/12/were-coming-for-you-2016/

Finally, there is Leonie Dawson’s ‘Guide to creating your shining year’. Leonie Dawson is an entrepreneur and coach based in Australia. She guides you through a series of questions and reflections on the previous year and her creative questions about the coming year allow you to explore a number of different areas of life and set goals for each of these areas (e.g. physical, spiritual, financial).   For a small cost you can download her e-workbooks or order hard copies.

http://leoniedawson.com/

As with many goals/resolutions/intentions the keys to actually doing what one says one is going to do are:

  • Be accountable to someone – share your goals, hopes, dreams, intentions
  • Take small steps
  • Regularly review your progress
  • Celebrate your successes
  • Be gentle, kind and compassionate with yourself
  • 2016 – ready or not – here we come!

2016Dawn M. Schell, MA, CCC, CCDP is an affiliate counsellor with Worldwide Therapy Online Inc. http://www.therapyonline.ca




*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

Posted by: Reena Sandhu on January 16, 2015 10:19 am
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As a follow up to the CBC TV interview, “   “ Dr. Reena Sandhu expands on her tips on how to keep a New Year’s resolutions.

A New Year significances a fresh start, a clean slate, and a time to reflect on setting new goals and intentions to make changes in our lives. Typically, by mid February our resolutions are either disregarded or lost.

So, why is it so difficult for us to set goals and follow through on them for the year? The answer may lye in the way we go about creating our resolutions. Instead of focusing on broad goals, create a plan to form better habits. Routine and habit are powerful in forming our behavior. Habit and routine have an enormous impact on our way of being. Habit impacts our health, efficiency, happiness and much more. Creating a habit can impact whether we keep or abandoned our resolutions in 2015.

The psychology of habit can provide insight into making your resolutions stick in 2015. Below are 5 ways to keep your resolutions in 2015.

  1. Get Specific: Instead of writing a list of goals, write a list of actions that can be incorporated into your daily routine. The key here is to structure the behavior so it becomes a habit. For example, Instead of writing a goal that you will lose 15 pounds by the end of the year, write a list of actions that you will incorporate into your day- so this can be scheduling 3 workouts a week, after work. People who break their resolutions up into manageable chunks, typically have more success because they have more control over the actions.
  1. Build in a Reward: Every habit has a cue that triggers the habit to start and makes our brain go into autopilot mode, then the behavior follows, and the reward is experienced. This is how the brain leans to remember and habitually craves to create the experience again. For example, if your resolution is to lose weight, your cue may be to wake up at 6am to be at a spin class by 7am. Taking out 10 minutes to enjoy the steam room may serve as the reward that helps your brain associate the spin class with something enjoyable.
  1. Create Accountability: Share your goals with the world! Tell your friends and family what your resolutions are. Research shows that people who explicitly state their goals are more likely to keep them. Telling people about your goal can give you both a support system and a way to hold yourself accountable. It also makes the goal you’re trying to reach less initiating. Publicly announcing what you intend to do I not only empowering, but it can also hold you socially accountable for making it happen. In general, making a public commitment adds motivation.
  1. Anticipate obstacles: In my practice, I like to encourage my clients to dig deep into their vault to explore their thoughts and feelings in order to understand what obstacles can get in the way of reaching their goals. So if we’re honest with ourselves, we can actually plan for the obstacles – And it’s much more likely that we will still follow through with our resolutions. It’s important to note that a slip up might just be part of the process- it might be an indication that you need to refer back to the 3 techniques to see which one of those components are not working.
  1. Don’t Be So Hard on Yourself– Resolutions are all about becoming a Better Version of yourself, and not the Perfect Version of yourself.



*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA

Inspiring Fitness and Activity

Posted by: Asa Don Brown on January 10, 2014 4:00 pm
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“Great changes may not happen right away, but with effort even the difficult may become easy.”
~ Bill Blackman

If you have a desire to inspire another, first be inspired yourself.  Inspiration can only occur if you understand what it is to be inspired.  The process of inspiring others, is frequently the messages we receive from our religious, political, and motivational leaders at the beginning of a new year.  The messages are often reminders of our abilities to be renewed.  In fact, if you consider the United States President’s, State of the Union, it is almost always placed at the beginning of a new year.  Why?  It is a way of implying that we can begin again and anew.

NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS

The tradition of setting a New Year’s resolution dates back nearly 4,000 years ago. “The ancient Babylonians made promises to their gods at the start of each year, which began in mid-March, that they would return borrowed objects and pay their debts.  March was a logical time period for the New Year because spring begins and crops are planted.  But the Babylonians had a greater motivation to stick to their promises than what we have today, because for the ancient people of Mesopotamia, keeping their promise would mean that their gods would bestow their grace on them throughout the course of the following twelve months, and breaking them would put them out of favor.” (Holloway, 2013, Online)

New Year’s Resolutions are frequently battered with physical intentions.  Acknowledgment of one’s physical and psychological limitations is a way of expressing we have room for improvement, without declaring that “I have need for improvement.”  As a society, we typically shy away from expressing such limitations or needs, because of the stigmas associated with limitations or expressed weaknesses.

WEAKNESSES AND LIMITATIONS

A weakness or limitations is good.   Acknowledgement of a weakness or limitation is the recognition that you, or we, have an ability to improve or make a marked change in our lives.  It is when something is clearly noticeable or evident that people recognize our desire for improvement.

The avoidance of our limitations and weaknesses stems from our fear of failure.  The fear of failure is limiting, smothering our very ability to breath and function.  If we live our lives fearing the possibility of failure, then we are not living life to it’s fullest.   Fear is frequently the catalyst that drives people away from pursuing their ambitions, goals, desires, and life’s callings

“Fear stifles our thinking and actions. It creates indecisiveness that results in stagnation. I have known talented people who procrastinate indefinitely rather than risk failure. Lost opportunities cause erosion of confidence, and the downward spiral begins.”
~ Charles F. Stanley

It is crucial that we recognize that our weaknesses, limitations and failures are nothing more than  guide maps indicating our current positions within life.  We should continuously seek to be our absolute best.  Even if, there is a barrier blocking our pathway, find a way around it or through it. Fundamentally, we are the only rulers and narrators of our lives.  No one else can determine how we live our lives.

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*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA