With the holiday season just upon up, the tension of completing any outstanding affairs is building up and accompany us like an unwanted shadow. Mixed emotions are settling down. Perhaps you are being trapped in the hunt for the last minute Christmas gifts. Possibly you are trying to fight the feeling between what you truly want and calming down some other voids. Maybe you are calming down this nagging chatter in your head that want you to make sure that the next year is going to be different this time around. So you jump – into making yet another set of resolutions. The resolutions that have become a negative “downer word” almost synonymous with a broken promise. So eventually you settle for what you know and have as you limit your risk and strip down the possibilities.
As the possibility of slowing down looms on the horizon, I invite you to perhaps do something different as the year bows to an end. And before engaging in another New Year resolutions spin-off, stop for a moment and look back over the last twelve months. Maybe there were lots of changes for you in the passing year? Maybe it’s been a year of growing or nesting or exploring or letting go. Whatever’s happened this year, it’s got you to this point, right now. Exactly where you’re meant to be. But how would you know it if you have never allowed yourself to check it out? This is your gift to yourself. You have earned it. Pick up your pen and do some exploring. Your Best Year Ahead reflection form
What if you could start fresh and start it now and ditch The Resolution by making the New Year – The Year of Revolution!
A few things to keep in mind:
- Most big changes take, at the minimum, six attempts before succeeding at it. We have been programmed to accept that a resolution is something we can break anytime life gets a little bit tougher. A revolution is “easier” when supported by a conscious decision/choice/commitment -and more productive when new habit is worked through “a replacement therapy” rather than by just ditching an old one. According to scientific research, it takes about 21 days to form a new habit and 6 months to be embodied to your personality. Persistence is key.
- Think Year Round—Not Just On Day One (Jan 1st). Nothing big and significant happens in one day. When climbing a mountain—look for how far you’ve come, rather than how far you have to go. You are now just that much closer than when you first started. And you don’t have to wait until January of any year to do something either. There’s no reason you cannot make a “New Year Commitment” any time of the year for any reason at all.
- Share Your Commitment and Write It Down. It’s easier to let yourself down than someone else! How many of us are okay with breaking a promise to someone else? We are too afraid to do that. Then, why we are ok with breaking promises to ourselves? Imagine someone continuing to break promises to you, how long do they stay in your life? What – then – makes you do it to yourself? The answer probably is: nobody will ever know. Yeah, right! YOU will know. Find someone who will support you.
- Who is supporting you? Weed out non-supporters from your life. It is difficult and it is necessary – especially – when it is your family, your spouse, or a friend. Identify those who “help” you fail and those to make you succeed. Avoid surrounding yourself with those who are the life-long ‘saboteurs’, intentional or not. You are who you eat with and you are who you hang out with. Truly caring people will give you a hand when you are sliding down and won’t push you off the cliff.
- Put Written Reminders Everywhere. Paper remembers, people forget; therefore write it down. Make a journal of your goals. Measure the progress. This will keep you accountable to yourself. Writing has a proven scientific brain- and habit-forming benefits that make things stick. You can dismiss anything in your head all day long, but if it is written down and plastered everywhere, you have to make a physical and conscious effort to throw it away.
- Invest In Your Res(v)olution?If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you! Nothing rewarding comes easy or free. So what you put into it, is what you’ll get back.
