Go Gently Into the Year

It’s the end of January - how are you doing with your resolutions?

For some people, resolutions last a week or a few months. Fewer people still are able to make lasting changes.

What makes for success?

Researchers have had much to say about it this year. Tara Parker-Pope advises that making a resolution without a mission statement is likely to fail. It’s important to examine why we want to change.

If you made a resolution to exercise more, is it to look or feel better?

You’re likely to be more successful if you have a deeper reason, ie; you want to be healthy as you age so you can be active with your children and grandchildren. When life threatens to get in the way of your resolve, you’ll be less apt to waiver from your goal if you have a well thought out reason to change.

Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project, states that people often try to change habits in ways that don’t fit their personality or lifestyle. She suggests that people lack self-awareness rather than self-discipline.

Before you make the resolution to exercise before work, ask yourself if you’re a morning person. If not, your resolution will cause you physical discomfort, not fit in with your lifestyle and, as a result, you’re more likely to drop it.

I like Melissa Burkley’s PhD advice about using January as the month to prepare for change. Think about the change you want to make. Strategize how to make it happen.

What can you commit to?

How can you overcome obstacles when life becomes chaotic?

Plan on starting your plan for change in February. Use March as the check -in time. Ask yourself questions to continually assess.

What’s working?

What needs tweaking?

Be kind to yourself. It takes 66 to over 200 hundred days to change a habit. Angeles Arrien Ph.D. suggests getting to know oneself better by asking three questions at the end of every day.

1. What made me happy today?

2. Where in my life did I experience comfort and balance?

3. Who or what inspired me?

This is certainly a lot to think about. Using the above steps to dig deeper into your resolutions can help you understand and commit to change.

Check back with me in April when I will have written my mission statement, learned what truly is meaningful to me and eased into 2015.

Mediation and Therapy Associates specializes in helping you create a fulfilling life. We help you identify goals and develop skills to establish rewarding relationships with partners/spouses, your children, extended family and community. For more information, please visit my website at www.mediationandtherapyassociates.com.