New Year, Realistic Goals: Achieving Success Step-by-Step

Good day. This is Dr. Jana Price-Sharps from Mind Pilot. Today we're going to talk about New Year's resolutions. This is. Well, it's a tradition, certainly, but it also causes a lot of people angst and song and talk about some consideration. Says you're making those resolutions. The first one is that people tend to overwhelm themselves, so they go from not exercising at all, not eating a healthy diet to they're going to work out six days a week and they're not going to eat any carbs for the next five months. Something along that line. And you can do that. But I will say that resolutions tend to be more effective if you think in terms of habits or you can look at resolutions on things that you want to accomplish this year. But those are kind of two different things. What is the purpose of your resolutions? Is it to help you begin to move forward and get some tasks accomplished, or do you have some habit patterns that need to be changed? If it's habit patterns, I would strongly recommend that you look at the habit and you break it down. Why are you doing that? Habit. If you don't understand why, a lot of times it's difficult to break the habit. Some maybe you have a habit of, I don't know, eating ice cream every evening. And maybe you want to break that habit. Well, first of all, you might ask yourself, did I not eat enough today? And so now I'm getting the evening munchies. Or are you agitated and sad? And as you get closer to bedtime, you start thinking about tomorrow and getting agitated. And so you want some kind of comfort food or is that kind of a way You are, I don't know, giving yourself a treat it because you've had a hard day or do you just like ice cream? Okay. And so when you begin to understand why your system is wanting you to do certain things, it gives you an edge on figuring out how to change that. So maybe years kind of skipping dinner or you're eating a really, really late dinner. And so by 930, you're really hungry again. So maybe you add a little more, I don't know, protein to your dinner, for instance, so that you have that sense of fullness and you're not craving those late evening snacks that you're wanting to try and get rid of. Maybe you have a show that you always watch, and every time you watch that show, you eat ice cream or you eat popcorn. Maybe you were in watch that show earlier in the evening. So maybe you shift things. You may have to begin to work with your own brain. What is your brain wanting of you and how to work with it to shift things, shift habits. I tell people all the time, just add in one thing that works for you. So let's say you don't drink enough water. Well, don't go from drinking nothing but diet soda to expecting your system to only drink water. People won't do that typically. Some people will, but rare rarity. And so maybe you make a deal with yourself. Every other drink I have is going to be water. Maybe I'll have a soda that I'll have water. Then I'll have, I don't know, green tea. And then I'll have water, you know, make it so that it's doable. Think about what are some things that you can do to make this next year the best year of your life. Are there some things that you can do for your health that will give you more energy, that will make you feel better about life? Because if we have our health, our mood is going to be better and we're going to feel more hopeful and we're going to perform better at whatever it is that we do. So are there some things that you can add in there? How about some things with your relationships? Maybe you want to spend more time with your significant other. Get down the calendar and start planning. What are some day trips that you can take over the year? If they're on the calendar, they're much more likely to happen. So maybe next month you want to take a day trip and go to the mountains and do some hiking. Okay. Put it on the calendar. Maybe you want to start implementing and date night once a month. Maybe you have little ones so you can't do it. Or you know, once a week. But maybe you could do it once a month. Maybe there's some extra exercise routines you'd like to take on, but moves slowly don't go from sitting on the couch and not doing anything to you're going to work out six times a week. Move slowly and take it a little bit at a time with resolutions. That's one of the most important things that you can do. But you also have to know your why. And I know that sounds kind of weird, but why are you doing this? Are you doing this because your best friends are telling you to do this because work's telling you to do this because you're significant and significant others telling you to do this or are you doing it because you really want to do it? There's a big difference. People that do things because other people are telling them to and they haven't really bought into it, are very likely not to follow through with it. And when people don't follow through with things that they've set up and they've, you know, made some resolutions tends to affect how they feel about themselves. So figure out what it is you want to include in your life and how you're going to include it. But the other thing is take it one step at a time. Don't do a full life makeover. People get very overwhelmed when they do it. And a lot of times they'll drop out of that very quickly. Maybe you pick up drinking more water in January and then in February you start eating a salad a day and you're still drinking water. You know, had things in slowly because you're going to be more effective and figure out a way to track it. You know, so maybe you want to reduce carbs. So there's lots of apps online that you can track your carb intake. So maybe you do that. There's other apps that will track your water intake or your vitamin intake or your workout routine. Some apps do all four or five different things, but take it slowly. Set up your life so you're successful. Don't set it up so you feel bad that you haven't progressed, that you didn't do anything that you set out to do, and then put it on a calendar, say, okay, this month is water month. Next month is eating salad month. I don't know, but put it on a calendar so you can go, yeah, I did pretty good. I you know, I drank water every day last month. That was pretty cool. Okay. Good job. Do it a little bit at a time. And set up your life so that you feel better physically and so you can have a happier life because people that feel better physically tend to have a much happier life and you deserve to have a happy life. So, again, separate out those resolutions that are changing habits to the resolutions of this is what do I want to accomplish this year? This is what's important to me. Maybe you're writing a book. Maybe you're writing a song. Maybe you're learning how to play the flute. Who knows? But make a plan for that as well. But those are two separate things. I hope you have a wonderful year, and I wish you all the success and all the blessings you deserve that good life. So plan for it. You take care. This is Dr. Jana Price-Sharps from Mind Pilot.