Yes, that’s right. New years resolutions can be bad for you.
“Why?” you might think… Surely having goals to improve yourself and have something to work towards is a good thing right?
Well not necessarily, let me share with you why.
First think back over the past few years and to resolutions you have made, and maybe ones friends and family have made too. Have you achieved them all? (If you have well done you’ve done better than most!) – but chances are you stopped thinking about them by the end of January.
It’s well known that less than 10% of people actually keep and achieve their new years resolutions. But why?
Think about it like this. You’re setting yourself a goal for the whole year, so its probably a big goal, and one that’s going to take a lot of time and effort to achieve. And also one that’s going to be very easy to forget about, give up on or simply not achievable.
So why not break it down and make it more realistic?
Every day you wake up is a New Day
I came across this a few years ago and is something that I’ve brought into my life, and it’s helped… A LOT.
Rather than setting annual, unrealistic goals that we’re never going to stick to… lets just embrace the day in hand.
Setting a new years resolution that you’re more than likely not going to achieve is simply setting yourself up for failure and disappointment. And disappointment never feels good.
So if you’re planning a new years resolution to help make you feel good about yourself, there’s a good chance it may not help… it could even make you feel worse.
How about trying a different approach and taking things day by day? This way you get a feel good ‘win’ every single day.
How to do it:
Every night on a notepad or piece of paper, write down either what you have achieved, learned and/or are grateful for from that day. If there’s something you haven’t achieved that day you’d have liked to, that’s fine, because there’s always tomorrow.
Breaking things down and doing it day by day will help keep you on track and reflecting on the positive things from the day.
By physically writing down positive things like this, even just a couple of words, you are confirming it with yourself and help release happy, feel good chemicals in your brain. And it’s these chemical that help fight against anxiety, worry and depression.
So why not give it a go?
Treat yourself to a nice note bad and keep it somewhere you’ll see it each day to help you remember.
And promise to let me know how you get on! I’d love to hear from you and let me know how you find the process or what you find that works for you.
Happy New Year,
Sammy 🙂
PS . Typo’s are free! 🙂