Have You Ditched Your New Year’s Resolutions?

With March upon us, I’m always shocked how quickly the new year has turned into the last month of Q1. This time of reflection leaves me thinking about what I’d set out to do and what I’ve accomplished thus far, but also leaves me focusing on the goals and intentions I haven’t yet achieved. I acknowledge that this is part of human nature and most people focus on what they haven’t achieved versus what they have. Do you find yourself doing the same?

Research shows that up to 80% of people ditch their New Year’s resolutions by February.

It’s why the gyms are packed in those first few weeks of the year but dwindle down by the end of the month. By this point of the year, the thing you’d intended to do becomes a fleeting memory.

But what if there was a way to keep going so the act of creating these goals wasn’t a pointless exercise in the first place?

I think the flaw with New Year’s resolutions is that, like many things in our lives, it’s a short-term focus, one that you attempt for a brief period of time to achieve one finite goal. Usually the goal is for the betterment of your life in some way.

For many Christians, the time of Lent becomes the period they use for a specific goal or intention they’ve been wanting to cut down on: sugar, social media, cursing, judging others, etc. But then that habit returns in full force after Easter. I suppose the question becomes, what purpose do you have for giving that ‘thing’ up in the first place and why not keep going?

A new way to think about those intentions you had originally set and how to make them lifestyle habits is to focus on what has worked in the past for you, what you were doing when you were successful and feeling good about it.

This could require you to think back to a time–one, five or even ten years ago–when you had these feelings and emotions around your successful and consistent habits. Channeling those memories can serve as something called a positive emotional attractor state (PEA), which activates our parasympathetic nervous system and can give us feelings of hope and positivity and motivates us in a self-directed way to keep our ideal vision of ourselves at the forefront.

Instead of functioning on the idea of fear, anxiety, shame and guilt (negative emotional attractors or NEA’s), which is how we often approach goals we haven’t met, PEA’s tap into the idea of our ideal self and focusing on our innate strengths and a growth mindset.

THIS is the attitude we need to adopt to achieve the goals and intentions we’ve set out for ourselves and ultimately succeed at.

Try shifting your attitude surrounding what you want to accomplish and watch how that changes your progress.

How are your goals and intentions for the year going? How can I help keep you on track? Sign up for a consult to find out!