Why limit yourself to one day?
So no doubt many of you made a New Years resolution just over 1 week ago, and I’m keen to find out how you are getting on. Did you decide to lose weight, stop smoking, to drink less alcohol, to train towards a marathon, or to make a particular lifestyle change……. for the umpteenth time again? I’m sure you made them with the absolute intention of following them through this time, yet a study of 3000 people showed that 88% of people who also made them failed for various reasons. These include setting unrealistic goals, failing to track and monitor them, all the way to actually forgetting about them!
One of the issues we at Cambridge Hypnotherapy have with New Years resolutions is why do you need to have only one day in a whole year to change? Quite often people plan their commitment for months before January 1st, so why not start as soon as they know they are going to be doing it? The other reason I dislike the resolutions that people generally make is that they are as mentioned above, either unrealistic or unmeasurable. For example someone wishing to lose weight will often focus on such a huge goal that they become disillusioned and give up. Imagine saying to yourself that you won’t have chocolate again, its not realistic so when you eat some everything goes to pot and you give up. Or people decide to exercise 6 times a week when realistically only 3-4 are possible. The feeling of failure kicks in and again they give up.
The other reason is the goals are often not clear enough, which makes them impossible to track or measure. Someone may say they want to lose weight, and they way they are going to do it is just by trying to eat better. What does that actually mean? How can you work towards a goal if you don’t know what that goal is?
So, its now the 9th January 2020, and if you have made a resolution and still going strong then massive congratulations and keep going! If you made one and failed, or didn’t make one but don t want to wait 12 months to decide to change, then heres a few pointers to help you:
Set a specific goal
Make it measurable
Set a deadline, a date in which you want to have achieved it by.
Track your goal, and adjust your behaviour if need be
Be accountable
If you need any help and would like to discuss how we can help you make these changes permanent, why not drop us a message here and we’d be happy to offer you a complimentary initial consultation, or call us 0n 01223 720 120.
Speak soon!
Luke