How do we set a resolution and maintain it? How do we set a resolution and yet at the same time, not feel bound by it but free to live within it?

Most people make resolutions at the New Year because it marks a new beginning. Yet making and sustaining the resolution is actually more emotional work than anything else. The more that we are feeling bound by or handcuffed to a resolution, the greater the possibility exists that we will break it. We will find it too hard, too impossible, too crazy or outside of our scope to accomplish. This is when resolutions go by the wayside.

The opposite of this is to make resolutions that are softer emotionally. When we feel a sense of freedom and ease within our resolutions, we have a much greater possibility of completing them and actually holding onto the resolution as a new way of being.

For the many people that struggle to keep resolutions, there are always tips and tricks you can do to help yourself stick to them, especially if you want to live a healthier lifestyle.

The old adage ‘how do you eat an elephant?’ is more relevant here than ever. Persistence and setting smaller goals is the key, but it takes time and patience.

For example, one of the more common resolutions that people have is to lose weight or exercise regularly. Most start this process out very logically. They may hire a trainer, join a gym, and plan to work-out three days a week. All with the aim to lose a certain number of pounds a week. There is a force to this approach from the outside to fix something that is construed as wrong.

As you may know or have experienced yourselves, this approach lasts about six to eight weeks on average, and then most people fall off this resolution feeling destitute and discouraged.

What if the approach taken was completely different? What if we took a very unconventional approach to the idea of the weight loss resolution? The first step would be to accept where we are now. Then, the next step would be to go to the gym and instead embrace the feeling of vitality increasing oxygenation, feeling better, sensing endorphins in the body and simply enjoying how we feel better. With frequent visits come more energy, better sleep and an all-round healthier feeling.

With this new attitude, the resistance to the ‘new’ regime drops off. And within this newer more novel approach, we are more likely to make it to the gym and eat the salad as well as walk more often. The drop off from this type of resolution would be completely different.

Similarly, you can shift any resolution that you are creating simply by changing the attitude, the words, and the emotional impact on yourself.

Good luck and feel free to let us all know how you get on.

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