Resolution Revolution
My goodness, it has been a long time since I posted anything. There at the end of the year it felt like time got away from me. Here we all are in the new year of 2021. We are nearly a month in. We just had an historic snow storm and are kind of snowed in. I want to write some encouraging words here. Often, people talk about what they plan to do in the New Year. Sometimes we call them resolutions, other times goals. Generally they are lofty. Surely you know someone who is going to lose weight, eat healthier, get more exercise, quit drinking, (write more consistent blog posts) or volunteer more in 2021 than they did previously. Having goals is a great motivator. Keeps you thinking and keeps you moving. The thing about resolutions is that they usually are unsustainable, either because they are too nebulous or to high. And its generally about the end of January that people start dropping off of their New Year’s goals or resolutions. And what commences is some self-flagellation about not being able to follow through or being a quitter or not having the will power to be up to the task. I’m here to tell you that you don’t have to feel bad about yourself if you have found yourself eating a whole pizza when you planned to give up carbs. Let’s revolutionize resolutions, shall we. Include a little self-forgiveness and grace? If you are having a hard time sticking to your goals, instead of immediately berating yourself, let’s first assess the goals you set. Your goals need to be fairly specific so you know what you are looking for as a result. So instead of lose weight, I want to drop one pants size by summer. That is more specific and will give you a better idea of how you are doing than weight necessarily would. The next thing to consider is how realistic is your goal? If a goal is going to work, it has to achievable, or attainable. It has to be realistic. If your goal is to be fluent in Russian at the end of this year and you live in Iowa, that might not be realistic. Being able to understand basic Russian and know their alphabet, that might be realistic. Your goals also have to be believable. Do you believe it is something you can or will do? If your goal is to become vegetarian but your diet is almost exclusively meat, you might not believe you can do that. You might be better off limiting to only chicken, or red meat twice a week. Ultimately, we often make sweeping goals that set us up to feel bad when we don’t meet them, but it is ok to set your sights lower and build more stair step goals. You now get to feel like you have accomplished something more frequently and can celebrate your successes instead of scrapping the whole thing. So as you are considering one month in how you are doing on your goals for the New Year, keep these tips in mind and tweak your goals, adapt them to increase your likelihood of success. Success propels you forward. And that is what we want, to move forward. Right?
I wish you all a safe New Year.
Thanks for reading & take care,
AmyZ
Just for fun, here is a picture of me and my cat thinking about our New Year’s Resolutions this year. (She is actually thinking of some FOR me, she doesn’t think she needs to change anything)
