Three weeks into the year…have you been able to keep your resolution? If you have, then congratulations! That truly is fantastic.
If you are like many, chances are, your resolve to make that change is probably waning a bit. Hopefully, we can try to boost that up a bit, this week.
Last post I talked about instead of a resolution, what about trying a thirty day challenge instead. Like you know, I decided to step away from my Facebook account for thirty days and guess what….I am still here and my life has gone on without it!
I mentioned that there was another technique I would fill you in on. This one is about finding the routines that help you achieve a goal and committing to them. Remember I mentioned that our brains like routine. Unconsciously we are driven to stay in our comfort zones and never to venture out too far.
When we first think about setting a goal, depending on how big it is, there is a tendency to what to change a lot of things all at once. As an example, you decide your want to lose a few pounds. The first day, you drink your eight glasses of water, you stop putting sugar and cream in your coffee, you get up and go to the gym, you park your car a block away from your workplace and walk in, you take the stairs instead of the elevator, you eat salad for lunch, the list goes on and on.
You know by doing all these things, this will get you where you want to go, fast. Day two, you do the same thing. Day three, you do 95% of it. By the end of the week, you are maybe doing some of it. Truth is, by making all these changes at once, it is simply overwhelming and you really are setting yourself up for failure.
Instead, recognize that to achieve a goal, you just have to make one change at a time. There are routines in your life that got you to where you are today, so in order to change to achieve something different, you have to change those. If you have added on a few pounds, because you find yourself sitting in front of the television every night, snacking, what if you decided to change the amount of time you watch television?
This is where, in combination with the thirty day challenge, it can really make a difference. What if losing those few pounds were as simple as committing to only watching sixty minutes of television every day for just thirty days? Would this create a difference? Would it lead you to do things differently?
Goals are achieved one step of time, so recognize that by moving one rock at a time, eventually you will move a mountain. If you set yourself up to stop moving those rocks, then nothing happens. Remember we are all a work in progress, so forgive yourself when you falter and know that as long as you are in the game, you are in the game and at the end of the day, that is all that really matters!!!