Why New Year’s Resolutions Suck (And What You Should Do Instead)

Why New Year's Resolution SuckHappy New Year you all!

I hope that you have not only had a refreshing start into 2015, but also had a good chance over the holidays to recharge your batteries! Ready to dream big for the New Year!

New Year means new habits and new experiments, right?

Speaking of “new experiments”, I have the impression I am currently full of them. 🙂 Going offline for a whole week, writing this post on a Saturday (instead of the usual Friday) and I’ve got something big planned for next week. You are invited to come along! But more on that later.

So, why do New Year’s Resolution suck and why are they utterly flawed?

Well, I don’t know about you, but for me there are two obvious reasons for it:

  1. People think of New Years Resolutions and then at the latest three months later, either have forgotten about them or made up some excuses on why they couldn’t stick to them. I am as guilty as anyone else. (You can check out this article from 2013 to see why I totally screwed up back then.)
  2. Most of the people who develop New Year’s Resolutions believe they are broken. They believe they have to fix themselves in order to be better, faster, wealthier – or what ever the case may be. They believe they are not good enough the way they are, so they push themselves into this trap, believing that something is wrong with them. They put lots of pressure on themselves to change. But, for what exactly?

Now, don’t get me wrong, I believe nothing is wrong with changing, quite the contrary. Changing for changing sake, though, won’t get you anywhere. Especially if your driving force are negative thoughts and feelings. This will likely lead you in the wrong direction.

You might agree or disagree with me here. And that’s okay. If you are open to try out something new this year, forget about New Year’s Resolutions for a moment.

 

What You Can Do Differently

Instead, try the following in the next 15 minutes: (Read through the instruction first, and do one step after the other.)

  1. Get out a pen  and a piece of paper.
  2. Answer the following question in a few sentences: “What are big (or small) achievements that I made in 2014? What wins? What were some great moments?”
  3. Go through your list and pick one of the achievements that you are most happy about.
  4. Write down all the details you can remember about that day or moment. Who were you with? What did it feel like? Etc.
  5. Now, we look into the future. Close your eyes for a moment and visualise yourself at the end of 2015. Think of the things you would like to be, have or do before the end of the year. Picture what you life will look like. Try to see details, colours, everything you can imagine being part of this picture.
  6. Make a drawing of that image. Add details if needed. It doesn’t need to be pretty. The image in your head is what is really important.
  7. Revisit that picture every few days for this week, this month and the months to come. It’ll not only help you to remind you, it’ll also help you to make it real. That’s simply how our brain functions. The more often you see a vision, the more often your brain says: “Yeah, I want that! I’ll do everything to get there!”

That’s it.

Are you going to give it a try? What does your picture look like? Or do you completely disagree with me? Please share a comment below with the community! I am going to start by sharing my image!

 

P.S.:  As briefly mentioned before, I want to extend an invitation to you. Next Thursday, I’ll be doing a webinar for people who want to take their wins in 2015 to the next level. It is totally free of course. You’ll walk away with a solid 3 step process, a crystal clear goal and a new intention. Click here to register. (Spots are limited, so make sure to save your seat right away.)

 

 

Comments

  1. Jantje Bartels says:

    As you might have guessed, my image has something to do with the image used above for today’s article. I LOVE cycling! So, my image for me for this year is to go on a great cycling adventure, a competition even. I could be chasing that guy up there for all I know :-). Why? Because I love the energy that this sport provides and it helps me to stay fit and lean!

Leave a Reply to Jantje Bartels Cancel reply

*

CommentLuv badge