Change In the New Year, Change Your Thinking

It’s that time of year again when everyone wants to start new year’s resolutions. Then after a few weeks they forget about them, or think it’s too hard to continue.  

How can you be successful when wanting to have a new year’s resolution? What do you need to be successful? 

First, Let’s think differently. Let’s call it an intention and not a resolution.  

According to the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary (a New Year’s) resolution is defined as: a promise to do something differently in the new year.

Intention is defined in the Mirriam-Webster Dictionary as: the thing that you plan to do or achieve: an aim or purpose. 

How do we achieve a goal that we want to do for the New Year? I have several steps that I personally have applied to my goals, and they have worked for me.

First, write down what you want to start. If it is not written down it will not count. You have to state your Intention. What is it you want to achieve? Why do you want to achieve it? And finally, how are you going to achieve it? Writing it down is sort of a contract with yourself. You will be able to see clearly what your intention is.

Writing down the why and how will mentally prepare you to start your intention and achieve it. You can clearly see a roadmap while writing it all down. If you focus on it mentally you will be able to feel it emotionally.  

If you feel it emotionally you will be able to achieve it better than saying to yourself what it is that you want to achieve. Your brain will be able to make sense to what it is you want and it will be easier to adapt to the new skill that you want to do. 

 You can change your thought patterns and your beliefs by becoming conscious of your unconscious thoughts and behaviors. 

Then you can choose to experience more positive emotions and less negative ones. 

Second, Meditate. Keeping calm will help you keep focus. It will help you stay in the present moment and not the past or the future. 

Third, Keep your thoughts in the Here and NOW! If you feel yourself thinking about the past and how you had failed, direct yourself to think about NOW and what you want to achieve!  Envision your goal. Do you want to lose weight? Think about what you will look like after a few months of working out and changing your eating patterns.

You have the power to control your own mind, a power that has been withheld for your entire life and it’s time to take your power back. 

Next month, on my blog I am going to write on how you can stay in the Present and what to do when your thoughts keep going to the past, or the future.  

A New Year, A New You?

I was just looking at my email and I noticed that the theme from the senders is 2020 sucks, and we need to get to 2021 so we can have a better life!

Yes, 2020 has been hard! People have lost jobs, can’t afford their bills & groceries, and some have even lost loved ones. It’s not fair! It sucks! I agree but if we stay in this mindset we will not have a fantastic 2021!

Look, my hubby couldn’t get another job during the first recession after the company that he was working for went public and sold their company. We went 9 months before he finally another job in a different state. We had to ask his parents for money so we could move our household.

After being in the new state he got laid off again! Luckily I was working then.

I quickly learned that being positive can have an impact on your life. You can still think positive thoughts, raise your vibration, and change your mindset to think and see the positive in your life.

One thing this year you can do is to is not make New Year’s resolutions that you know that can’t be fulfilled. To start any goal is to change your mindset. Write down what it is that you want to change. Write down your WHY. If you write down your WHY and explore it, you will have a better experience and will be able to achieve your goal.

Write down your specific goal. Writing out I want to lose weight is not a specific goal. How much weight do you want to lose? How will you lose it? How much exercise will you be able to do each day or the week?

After my brain surgery, I wanted to start to work out again. My first goal was to gain muscle strength that I had lost. I also needed to get my strength up to last half a day. It would have been unrealistic of me to say I wanted to stay awake all day long. I knew I needed my nap in the middle of the day.  I was lucky that I found someone that I still follow to this day that was offering Pilates workouts free for 5 days. I tried to do a little of her exercises each day. Some of the moves hurt my head and I knew I couldn’t do those exercises.

At least 2 times a week I tried to walk around the block. I started by just going down the street and coming back home until I could go further and further each week. Before I knew it I was walking out of our neighborhood and down the street. At first, it was really slow. I had to stop a lot and stretch my back but I finally made my goal a couple of months after my surgery.

Being realistic in my goals was the key to success. I did the same with my meditation and positive affirmation practice. I wrote out my schedule for the morning. I wrote down when would be a good time to sit and meditate and read my positive affirmations. . I included how long I would spend online when I would have my green juice & smoothie, my coffee (decaf), and exercise. I gave myself 15 mins. a day for exercise in the beginning, just to get my body moving.  I also scheduled my laundry day so my husband could bring the clothes downstairs to the garage where the laundry room is. I had to be careful of falling down the stairs so I had to ask my husband for help. . (We have since bought a ranch-style home so I don’t have to worry about stairs anymore.) In the afternoon it was more of things like bills, cleaning the kitchen and preparing & cooking dinner.

Finally have a positive mindset. See yourself achieving your goals. If you want to lose weight, see yourself stronger & at your goal weight. If you want to get that dream job, see yourself at the place you want to work nailing that interview! Add feeling behind your visions. Without happy, positive feelings it will not work. You need to have confidence that you will achieve your goals.

I like Napoleon Hill’s quote, “What the mind of man can conceive and believe, the mind of man can achieve.”