The 5 key components to making your New Year Resolution last!
It’s New Year’s Eve and you have all the best of intentions to fulfill your new year's resolution.
You’re thinking to yourself “This year is the year that I’m finally going to lose weight!” or your thinking “This year I’m finally going to quit smoking for good!” You’re pumped, you’re motivated, you’re inspired to become the best version of yourself!
Everything goes extremely well for a few months then you start to lose momentum. You start to feel unmotivated and revert back to your old habits.
This, of course, affects your self-esteem, your self-worth, and keeps you right in your comfort zone where you seize to grow into your best self!
Now, why is that? You’re probably thinking; Could it be that I’m just undisciplined? Could it be that I’m just lazy? Or, could it be that I’m not strong enough to fulfill my goal!!!
I’m here to tell you that is no way the case!!
Throughout all of my years of working as a Health Coach, I couldn’t help but notice certain patterns in my client’s journey towards health and wellness.
When they first start working with me, they feel excited! They feel motivated and they feel inspired to reach their goals! Then after a few months, they start to lose momentum, their motivation, and find themselves going back to their old ways!
That is until I teach them the 5 key components of sticking to their goals! To which I’d love to share with you! But before I get into the 5 key components, I’d like to give you the perfect formula for achieving results!!! Consistency + Mentorship = Results.
Alright, here are the 5 key components to making your New Year Resolution last!
#1 Take personal Inventory! Meaning, it’s important to write down your goals!
What I recommend to my clients is, every morning write 1-3 action steps you can take that day that will pull you closer to your goals! For Example; If your goal is to get in shape, then you might want to write #1 I must do a 30 minutes workout #2 I can take the stairs instead of the elevator #3 I can park further and walk to work.
Then at the end of your day take a personal inventory of what you’ve accomplished and what got in the way of achieving your daily goal.
Why is taking personal inventory so important? Well, for the simple reason of; you can’t manage what you don’t measure. Meaning, if you don’t have clarity, how are you supposed to achieve anything! Besides, just the fact of writing in your daily planner every single day teaches you about consistency which is the foundation of creating results! Not to mention, when you achieve your daily goals, it gives you the confidence and the momentum to continue!
#2 Make sure you celebrate your small wins!!! If you find yourself losing momentum, it’s probably because you didn’t give yourself the chance to celebrate the small wins along the way! Your brain is basically saying “why should I continue when anything I do is never good enough?” You literally get a hit of dopamine which is a hormone that makes you feel good every time you fulfill your daily goals! Not to mention, you 10x the joy when you celebrate your small victories! Simply, giving yourself a pat on the shoulder and saying to yourself “good job!” or if you want to treat yourself to your favorite tea or watching your favorite tv show or read a book in spite of celebrating your wins.
#3 Progress equals happiness! So many people get trapped into the notion of, if it’s not perfect the first try, they get discouraged and end up giving up! This often hinders people’s growth because there’s no such thing as perfection! Simply acknowledging that will give you the freedom to continue progression into your own journey towards health and wellness. Once we can develop a learning mindset, it allows us to push through the challenging times and overcoming our limiting beliefs of not being good enough!
#4 The 80/20 rule! Speaking of perfection, you can’t expect to follow your new year's resolution 100% of the time! It’s important to strive towards your goals with a sense of self-forgiveness and compassion! Remind yourself that you’re doing the best that you can with what you’ve got and where you’re at! Besides, there’s plenty of room to learn and grow into your ideal sense of self on this journey!
#5 Make sure you’re living “the good life” along the way! This goes hand in hand with celebrating your small wins. Except, I want you to take it one step further! Make sure you take the time, at least twice a week, and do something that makes your heart sing! Because if you keep focusing on the goal and you don’t make room for a bit of fun in your life, you’ll get discouraged, you’ll start to feel overwhelmed and unmotivated. Or worse, you will burn yourself out! So be mindful on living “the good life” every once in a while. I recommend you write It down in your planner/calendar/journal. You can even write it down in a different color. That way you can see how many times you lived “the good life” that week!
I hope this blog post served you well! If you feel like anybody would benefit from this blog post, feel free to spread the love by sharing it!
Until next time, remember, Keep progressing on your own journey towards health and wellness!
Cheers
Nancy Pitre,
Certified Holistic Health Coach