New year Resolutions and Smart Health Goals
New year resolutions are really common and helpful in actually transforming lives. As much they could be actually a bag of procrastination of goals all through the year, under a light and positive note they do really work when done efficiently and effectively with realistic measures. The most important thing in setting goals is to actually have a clear vision, belief statement, actions and a realistic time line to achieve them. The most common exercise I encourage all to do is to fill the wheel of life that comprises of circle of life that includes joy, spirituality, creativity, finances, career, education, health, physical activity, home cooking, home environment, relationships and social life. This exercise will help to throw light on the areas of life that are going well and the areas of life that need a little more love and care. It helps to get a clarity on an aspect of life that you would like to set goals on. This revelation on the part of lives going well often help to create positive emotions and ignite a sense of accomplishment and motivation to set further goals. And we now also know that health is not just healthy eating but also a balance in all the areas of the circle of life.
Now once you have clarity on your goal, you make a decision statement. When you make a powerful decision to succeed with your Decision Statement, you will have more focus, clarity, purpose, inspiration, and motivation. Your decision will remind you of the reasons of your goal and why you want to achieve it. When you deeply connect with your Decision statement and your reasons you will be inspired to take the action necessary to succeed. A decision statement is clear, concise, memorable and inspiring proclamation.
For eg: I am fully committed to eating healthy and am not giving up.
The next step is to create a Belief narrative. As rightly said by Napoleon Hill, If you can conceive something in your mind and believe it to be true, then you can achieve it! The power of mind is amazing. The more you believe in yourself, the more easily you will accomplish your goals. Examples of belief statement are , “ I can accomplish anything I put my mind to” or “I can be, do and have anything I want”. Create, memorize, and recite your belief statement daily. You can also put this up somewhere you can see it often in the day to create powerful emotions.
And lastly take actions to achieve your goals. For eg: you want to give up sugar, since you now know this sugar creates inflammation in the body and inflammation is the root cause of all diseases, to begin with you could give it up for a short period like 21 days to get the taste of it and hence motivate you to give it up for good. Also to deal with withdrawal symptoms you could introduce some natural sweeteners like honey, jiggery and stevia and also some foods that are sweet in nature such as carrots, pumpkin or sweet potatoes. The idea here is to take small action steps to have a lifestyle change. Remember Belief + action = SUCCUESS!
Tips :
- Focus on realistic goals than ambitious ones with a timeline to achieve them
- You can also use a guided imagery tool which is an effective mind-body technique that helps to gain a vision of the goal
- An effective way to accomplish success is to focus on your signature strengths. You can take the Via character strength quiz online ( www.viacharacter.org) to know your strengths.
- To avoid getting into a negative pattern of thinking or to manifest your goals is to adopt the concept of being in the moment or Now! This can be done through chanting, praying, yoga and mediation.
- Keep a gratitude journal, this helps to practice positivity
- Work with an accountability partner, mentor, or coach
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