How to keep New Year’s resolutions

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Ah the first day of a new year!  Here we are again, with a fresh start, ready to make our mark on 2011.

And have you made those perennial resolutions to lose weight? Find your dream job, your dream mate, live your best life?

Yes, we love how the start of a new year offers the possibility of starting afresh, but oh how easy it is to slide back into those old habits and ways, and end up right back where we started.

Why do we do it? Why do we make resolutions we know we will never keep?

Perhaps the reason we stumble and fall short of the ideals to which we aspire, is often because we make the wrong resolutions, resolutions focussed on what we don’t like about ourselves. Instead, why not think about bringing alive something in you that wants to express itself?  

Start this new year by identifying something deep inside your soul that you want to nurture in 2011. Think about what would be different about your life, if this aspect of your being was encouraged to come alive.

Goal Setting

Think about some small changes you could make in your lifestyle that would help to make this happen. It may be something as simple as getting up an hour earlier to meditate, exercise, or write before you go about the business of your day. The cumulative impact of a modest change to your daily routine like this will restore in you the feeling that you are the author of your own life.

An alternative New Year’s resolution

Of course, you could also change your framework of viewing resolutions and do what many others are doing this year – choose three words that will be your guide for what you intend to focus on in the coming year.

My Three Words

Following on from what I learned from my unexpected Christmas gifts, I am choosing:

1. Simplicity

2. Gratitude

3. Perseverance

So, now over to you?  In the words of poet Mary Oliver, “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life”? What are your three words for 2011? How will they guide your actions?  Share it with us here and let us encourage each other in our hopes and dreams for a new year.

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Related Post:

Why breaking New Year’s resolutions is all in the mind

Category : Inspiration
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