Revolutionize Your Resolutions to Make Them a Reality
I’m a huge fan of New Year’s Resolutions! Well that probably doesn’t surprise you as I’ve written this article, but it might surprise you to know I’m no more a fan of New Year’s Resolutions than I am of Daily Resolutions. I do both, I also do Weekly and Monthly Resolutions. I also do Decadely and Centurially, and now you either think i’m joking or that I’m one of those questionable people that has their whole life mapped out. Surely that’s overkill and I don’t expect to live a thousand years? I don’t, but wouldn’t it be great to leave a legacy that lasts a thousand years? What can I say, I’m a dreamer! I’ve read a lot of articles that hate on New Year’s Resolutions. They don’t work for most people so they must not work. That’s like saying they keep buying gym memberships and still aren’t fit. Well did they actually go to the gym? So it’s not New Year’s Resolutions that are the problem, it’s whether or not you are choosing the right resolutions for you, defining them clearly and following through. So how do you get better at making and keeping your resolutions? Start with the Foundation Before you start making any resolutions, take a step back and think “what is it all for?” It’s common to jump straight into making resolutions on the things we failed at last year. But why the failure? Was it not important enough? Forget about it or give up? Was there not enough time or too much stress? So for your resolutions this year, what is your motivation to get it done? What’s more important to you than anything else? What are your values? Your brain is not great at answering these questions. Your heart is much better equipped. What does your heart tell you is important? It tends to be useful to list 5-10 values by asking yourself, “what’s important to me in life?” (e.g passion, family, love etc.) and rank them in order of importance. Then come up with a statement of purpose or a primary question that would help you live by and fulfill those values. An example might be “To live every moment with passion” or “How can I love my children with all my heart?” For some people this will be crystal clear, for some it will take a few drafts and edits to get it to a place your happy with. Design Your Dream Now based on your purpose, your values, what would your life look like if you fulfilled them everyday, if you lived your purpose? Think Big Picture. If you couldn’t fail, what would you do? Plan Long Term, if you had 10 years to make it a reality what could you achieve? Call it the Law of Attraction or Synchronicity, the reality is, “whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” — Napoleon Hill Setting your intention makes it more likely to come true. It’s not guaranteed, but it’s much more likely to come true than by chance. Why would you take a chance by leaving it to chance? And if you don’t set your intentions, as my good friend Charlie Smith says, “you are likely to end up as a noodle in someone else’s soup.” Now take that vision and put it on paper. Either write a description of what it looks like, the more detail the better, or if you are like me and love having a visual reminder, you can either create a vision board or draw a mind map of your future vision. The advantage of writing it down is you can update it as you go along. The advantage of a visual reminder is you can leave it somewhere you’ll see it often to remind you of where you need to be focusing. Personally I do both, I put the mindmap on my wallpaper so I see it multiple times a day, and I go back and read and update my written description about once a year, adding more detail and updating it to reflect my current evolution. In this image you can see my 10 year vision mindmap which I keep on the wallpaper of my phone. Start with the End in Mind & Be Holistic Imagining that your 10 year vision were possible, what would you need to do to make it happen? What would you need to achieve in the next 5 years? 1 year? Next month? This week? Today? Remember that you are not your achievements, but a whole living breathing human being with a body, emotions, intellect, relationships and consciousness. So when you are thinking of your goals and the person you are evolving into, make sure you incorporate your whole self into your plan in order to live at your full potential. You don’t have to be a bodybuilder to reap the benefits of exercise, you don’t need to be a nutritionist to eat healthy, and you don’t have to be a psychotherapist to be happy. There are simple techniques you can use to be at your best. If we don’t pay attention to our thoughts we get confused. How can you be clear-headed? If we don’t take care of our bodies we become weak. How can you have the energy you need to move forward? If we don’t express our emotions we get stuck. How can you ride the wave of emotions? If you don’t nourish your relationships you lack support. How can you get others to lift you up? If you don’t tap into your consciousness you get lost. How will you know where you should go? Now you may being doing very well in one or most of these areas, but a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. We can’t expect to do things how we have always done them and get a different result. If you want to see a change in your life, you must change first. Make Your