This week we were thinking about how and why so many of our New Year’s resolutions fail. In one survey 43% of all resolutions don’t make it to the end of January. The problem is that not only have we not changed but we now often feel we have failed too, making us feel worse than if we hadn’t set that goal in the first place.
I think this is because we make them too big and too vague. With busy lives we set ourselves up to fail, not taking into account current situations.
So to help us set intentions or goals we can achieve we looked at some simple steps we could implement to help ourselves.
- Think about why you want to set a particular goal. This will help you when things get difficult, which they will otherwise you would already be making this change!
2. Be specific. Think about actually what it is you want to achieve so instead of something vague, For example instead of I want to be healthier choose something like I want to regularly eat 5 portions of fruit and vegetable.
3. Make your goal attainable in your current life style. Saying you will attend a gym (once they are open again!) 5 times a week when you are already busy is not achievable. Going out for a 20 minute walk 3 times a week maybe a better goal.
4. How are you going to achieve your goal? Do you have a plan? For some who want to improve diet they may join a club or undertake a nutrition course, others who want to run use apps like Couch to 5k (C25k) to help motivate them.
5. How will you keep yourself accountable? Do you need a friend to check up on you?
6. What time scale do you want to achieve this intention in? When will you check to see whether you are managing to achieve this goal or if you need to change something to help. At this point, especially if you are struggling, refer back to why you set it in the first place.
We can also set daily intention, to keep positive, to have a good day. The way we start the day can have an amazing impact on how your day goes.
So what intention or goal do you want to set for yourself?
Make time to think it through, make yourself the best version of you.
