By now, Christmas dinner feels like a distant memory and that tin of chocolates has been reduced to a mountain of empty wrappers. We’ve moved on from Christmas to New Year, and the annual ritual of setting resolutions and reinventing ourselves; New Year, New You!
Instead of flying into a list of things that you want to change about yourself and your lifestyle, stop and take a minute. Do you really need to be a “New You”? Do you really feel that there is nothing about yourself that you are happy or content with? What does it actually mean? And how would you know when you’ve achieved it?
Resolutions and goals are good, they give us something to aim for and focus on, something to keep us moving forward when things get tough or we get distracted. But they need to be something you can reach, something that has an end-point. How else will you know how you are progressing or when to celebrate your achievement?
Not only is “New You” vague and unmeasurable, but it is also negative in the way that it devalues everything that is good about you and your life at the moment. Break this down and think about what it is that you would actually like to achieve, for many people it might mean losing weight, eating more healthily and exercising more. When wording your goals, be positive; goals should be things that we aim for, to improve on where we are. Words like “lose”, “drop” or “give up” imply that we are taking away from who we are, instead try goals that include “increase”, “gain” or “start” e.g. to increase the portions of fruit and vegetables you eat, gain a new skill by learning to cook, or start playing a sport.
Be specific and choose something that you feel is achievable for you; creating a “New You” is a mammoth task and, even with the best intentions, is likely to lead to you not achieving your goal. Think about how much time, money, support and other resources you have available to you and how that would affect what you can achieve; if you have a busy home and/or work life, it might be unrealistic for you to start a new sport where you to train for a few hours 3x per week, but you could pick-up a sport that you used to play in school or college, or join a recreational team.
Break your goals down in to smaller bite-size chunks that will help you to keep on track. For example, if your resolution is to learn to cook, break that down in to learning a new recipe every month or every two weeks; if your resolution is to run a marathon, break your training plan down in to smaller achievements each month, such as completing a 5km run by the end of January. Your goals will be personal to you and will depend on where you are now and what you want to achieve; they might be similar to someone else’s, but they will rarely be the same.
Be realistic with your goal setting. Many of us have faced difficulties in the past 12months, be considerate of how this has and could continue to affect you both mentally and physically. There are many ways this could impact you; maybe you aren’t feeling your usual energetic self; you might not have access to childcare or the local gym; perhaps there have been disruptions to your work or home life. That’s OK though, work with what you have and if things change and you do end up achieving your goal early you can always set another one.
Most importantly, remember to celebrate your successes and achievements along the way.
Happy New Year!
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