New Year is Monday morning on steroids – you are not waking
up to one new Monday but 52 of them! All our good intentions and New Year
Resolutions crammed up in one small space – the first few days of the year. We
read about it in every magazine, on Facebook,
and all our friends and family want to know how you are
going to change your life this year.
You wake up on the 1st most likely with a bit of a
headache and you decide you are never touching another beer, smoking another cigarette,
or eating anything else than salads and lentils. So living the lifestyle
of a Monk in the mountains should be easy this year – you’ve already
started!
Two hours later the rumble of your tummy is so loud that
your headache is right back, and that left over trifle looks sooooo good! Your
friend who has been away over the festive period is back and wants you to come
over for a braai later and 1, 2, 3 you are back in last years’ habits (which is
actually just 24 hours ago). And on the 2nd you start beating
yourself up because you can’t stick to your very, very long list of New Year
Resolutions.
Guess what? You are not alone and stop beating yourself up!
I started beating myself up 5 days before New Year and it didn’t help much
(except for helping me change the way I look at New Year Resolutions and now I
can share this with you!)
I made a list of all the things I want to achieve this year
(drop a few more kg’s, get fitter, get brown belt in Karate, make a success of
our business ventures, worry less about the things I have no control over,
etc), and the list is LONG! Then I realised it is all very noble and well to
write it down but ask yourself WHY is it important, how will it change your
life and those around you when you actually reach this goal. Your also start to
realise what is really important and worth investing more energy to achieve it
(spend less time on Facebook vs quit smoking)
Once you establish your WHY, it becomes so much easier to
get up an hour earlier and go for that run, to say no to that muffin, to quit
smoking… So make your list, write down your WHY, make use of the wonderful
support programs that are available and take it one day at a time...
May you have a Healthy Happy 2014!!
