How is your New Year’s Resolution going?
Tips to achieving and sticking with your New Year’s Resolution
Here we are, two weeks into the New Year. Have you made any resolutions? Have you stuck with them? If you have, congratulations! Pat yourself on the back. No. Really. I mean it. I want you to take your hand and literally pat yourself on the back. Good job! Celebrating all the small achievements along the way are just as important, if not more important, than celebrating the big achievements. It’s the small achievements that lead you to achieving the end result/goal.
If you haven’t made a resolution, that is OK too. I don’t always make resolutions. This year I did because I wanted to, not because I felt like I had to and it’s what everyone else is doing. You have to WANT to.
If you have already made a resolution and have not followed through, that is OK too. Ask yourself, how important is it to you? What is important about reaching that goal? If, on a scale of 1-10, it’s an 8, 9, or 10 that you achieve it, it must be pretty important to you. Start over. You have not failed. You might just need a different approach. Maybe these tips can help!
Instead of using the word resolution, can we use the word GOAL? To be honest, the word resolution puts way too much pressure on us. I like simple. Let’s use the word goal. Let’s pick ONE goal. Not 10 goals, not 5 goals, or 2 goals. ONE. It can be a health related goal, personal goal, or business goal. But I want you to pick only ONE. It’s great to have goals but having too many at one time can lead to mental paralysis, which then leads to completely giving up because we get so overwhelmed! This leads to feeling like we failed and our old destructive unhealthy habits come creeping back in. You can see the domino effect of putting too many goals on your plate. The idea is to FOCUS on ONE thing. Achieve it. It then becomes what you do and you no longer have to think about it. Like brushing your teeth every morning. It becomes routine, what you do, and you no longer have to think about it (or you hardly every forget to brush your teeth as I do sometimes when I get side tracked before getting to the bus stop and apologize to all the peeps around me for my nasty breath).
Once you have achieved that goal, you can then focus on the next. Does that make sense? Or let’s think about it. You could have 10 goals and try to achieve them all at once. Which one seems easier, more realistic, and achievable? Or you could do a mediocre job at each of the10 goals you made and not achieve one of them. The idea is to set yourself up for success. Feel accomplished. That feeling of accomplishment will motivate you to start working on the next goal.
So now, let’s look at how to set a well-formed goal.
A well-formed outcome or goal is:
1. Stated in the positive (says what we want, not what we don’t want)
2. Initiated and maintained by self (we don’t need to rely on someone else changing)
3. Achievable within the time frame given
4. Has a specific sensory based description- so we know how it feels or looks. It would be easy to measure or we have a description that would tell us when we have it.
5. Appropriate chunk size- biggest chunk to be worthwhile yet small enough to feel attainable.
It really helps solidify it when you WRITE IT DOWN and put it in a spot where you can see it often. Put it on your bathroom mirror, on your refrigerator, your screensaver on your computer, your wallpaper on your phone, in your car, etc.
Our goals need to be realistic and well DETAILED, not vague.
Here is an example of a health related goal, vague versus the detailed goal.
Vague goal: I want to drink more water.
Detailed goal: Drink half my body weight in water per day.
To start- Drink 16 ounces of water when I first wake up in the morning, 16 ounces of water before lunchtime, 16 ounces of water by 3 pm, and 16 ounces of water before taking my first bite at dinner.
True Story:
I literally used to drink maybe 8-16 ounces of water a day if I was lucky and I hated having to pee all the time when I did drink fluids. I was never thirsty so I just never drank water. I didn’t realize how important it was to drink water and the positive effects it had on the body. Before upping my water intake I had an afternoon headache every single day, my sugar cravings were out of control, I felt tired all the time, and my digestion wasn’t the best if you know what I mean. Lol! If you need a refresher on water and what it does, take a minute to google it. It’s super important!
When I started drinking more water, I DID NOT go from drinking 8-16 ounces of water to 60 plus ounces the next day. Have you heard the saying, “slow and steady wins the race”? That is what I did. I slowly started drinking more water each day. I started with drinking 8-16 ounces when I first woke up in the morning. That was the first goal. I achieved it. It became a habit and it just became what I did. I felt good and it motivated me to drink more. Then I started drinking 8-16 ounces of water before eating lunch. That became a habit. I achieved drinking my morning water and lunch water, that felt good, so then I moved onto drinking 16 ounces before dinner. I broke it down into small chunks instead of saying I am going to drink 60-70 ounces of water starting tomorrow. Going from drinking 8-16 ounces of water a day to 60 ounces would be too overwhelming for me and I would have just given up.
Tip #1: If you aren’t a fan of the taste of water, try adding frozen fruit to your water. You can buy frozen fruit in the freezer section of the grocery store. I love adding strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries to my water bottle along with a squirt of lemon. It tastes so much better and it helps me drink more water as opposed to drinking it plain or not drinking it at all.
Tip #2: Always have a water bottle with you- in the car, on the go, or a filled up glass of water next to the sink as a reminder while making dinner or washing dishes etc. In between prepping dinner or washing dishes I always have a filled up glass of water near me. I see it and it reminds to drink up!
Do you see the difference in a vague goal versus a detailed goal? When putting it into detail, it gave me an easy way to take action and it was also measurable.
Now that I have achieved that goal it is just what I do. I no longer have to think about it. It is my daily health habit that I created. I have more ENERGY for my family, I rarely get headaches, my sugar cravings have decreased, and digestion is now smooth. It may sound silly but because I have more energy, don’t have headaches, and I am not binging on sugar, I can say I am much kinder to the people around me. Something as simple as drinking water can make a huge difference in your life.
The most important thing about goal setting and achieving goals is asking yourself, who are you becoming in the process of achieving the goal? At the end of the day, external achievements, stuff, or a number on the scale aren’t what make us happy in the long term. Yes, the number on the scale may go down when losing weight and our pants may be looser, or people may say we look amazing. Ask yourself, what is the motivation or feeling attached to losing weight? To feel more energized? Confident? Positive? Strong? Accomplished?
It’s our character and how we treat the people around us that matters.
And ask yourself, what is important about the goal?
If your goal is to lose weight, awesome. But, if it means you are nasty to the people around you because you are depriving yourself of all the things you LOVE and you are doing it with complete self-deprivation, maybe its not the best fit for you.
Re-evaluate and try again. Be strict with your goal but flexible at the same time. Just because you didn’t achieve it the first time, does not mean you are a failure.
Remember:
1. Call it a GOAL, not a resolution! Less pressure, more achievable!
2. Choose ONE goal to start! Don’t overwhelm yourself, start simple!
3. Make it DETAILED, not vague, and break it into steps!
4. Most importantly, understand WHY you want to achieve this goal!
Sometimes we get stuck in our routine. We know what to do, but we don’t always do it. We may feel like it’s hard to create healthy habits on our own. That is where I come in. I help you set achievable health related goals with the key ingredients of SUPPORT and ACCOUNTABILITY.
I love helping stressed out women who are experiencing low energy due to the number on the scale and allow it to dictate how they feel. I help women create new healthier habits, gain more energy and remove the power of the scale so that they can be the best version of themselves for their families.
Are you letting your negative self-talk get the best of you in reaching your goals? I also love teaching people positive perspective mentalities while reaching their goals.
My goal is to help people create healthier habits and take more time for self-care in the midst of their busy lives (WITHOUT DEPRIVATION) in order to decrease mental and physical sicknesses, chronic illnesses, and doctor visits that could have been prevented.
Do you know anyone who is stressed out, has low energy, is dealing with a lot of negative self-talk, and destructive habits and could use some extra SUPPORT and ACCOUNTABILITY?
Over the phone, zoom, or in person.