Happy New Year!
2018 is finally upon us and with that come a new set of resolutions for the year that we pray to keep, but somehow, sometime towards the middle of January, our resolve seems to falter and our resolutions get shelved for another year, hoping that when we revisit it a year from now, we’d have more discipline to stick to our guns and follow through. The idea that, “Most of us break our New Year resolutions anyway,” is a negative belief system that stops us from achieving our full potential, and I want that to change.
This year, I’m launching the online campaign #createpositivechange, aimed at taking our new year’s resolutions and offering tools throughout the month to help support you stay the course and consistently keep at it for the entire month of January until you can turn the resolution into a habit, and then incorporate the practice/mindset/belief system into everyday life, with minimal effort.
To get you started, here are five ways you can incorporate positive psychology into your new year’s resolutions:
Become More Emotionally Aware
While new year’s resolutions are intended to change us into different people, the only variable that truly changes us – transforming us for better or worse – are our emotions. Emotional awareness and emotional management are the only ways to become a different, hopefully improved, person. There will be days where you’ll feel like giving in and giving up, and that’s ok. When you feel frustrated, helpless, or angry, take a step back and observe yourself and the emotion like a third person. What is making you feel that way? What has triggered that emotion to surface? Observe yourself, take a step back, and let it go. If you feel that you can’t, allow yourself to hold onto it for the day, process your feelings some more, and remind yourself to get back on the horse again tomorrow. There’s no need to be so hard on yourself.
Find Your I AM Quality
Take a look at yourself and your drama in your life – you know, the stories you keep telling yourself which is why you’re in this situation to need to change in the first place – and find the I AM qualities that will help take your victim story and turn it into your superhero backstory. If you’ve been struggling with weight issues all your life because you were verbally conditioned (e.g. You were constantly called chubby, fat, and overweight growing up), modelling (e.g. You come from a big family – from your grandparents to your cousins – being overweight is ‘normal’), or events that may have happened in your life (e.g. Your family went through a rough patch and there would be days where you wouldn’t have food in the fridge, so you overindulge at every opportunity), tell yourself that I AM Beautiful. I AM Healthy. I AM Improving. I AM Enough. The more you repeat your I AM qualities as your daily mantras, the easier it will be to get out of your limited beliefs by creating the positive results you want and owning it!
Create Your Support System
Look around you and the people you interact with on a daily basis. Do they help or hinder your goals? If your resolution is to hit the gym and start making better eating choices, which ones of your friends, family, and co-workers would support you in reaching your goal by joining you in your trips to the gym, recommending you to their pilates instructor, or making sure that the snack drawer is kept tightly locked when you’re around? Find your support system and they will help spur you on to meet whatever goal it is you set without you feeling like you’re going about it all alone.
Let Go of BAGS
Blame, Anger, Guilt, and Shame are four main causes of most of our strife and keeps us from getting to our next level. Learn to let the past go, and accept that the future hasn’t happened yet, so technically, those feelings don’t really matter – it’s all in your head. Don’t let your BAGS be the reason you can’t keep a resolution you know will help you become a better human being.
Stay Excited
A resolution is accomplished only if you do not allow enthusiasm to wane. Success in life, living, love, and learning is often determined by the positive passion of the response. Strive to motivate passion, instigate excitement, and model enthusiasm for your new year resolutions. When you vibrate at the level of excited, it becomes so much easier to manifest your goals.