Coach Perspectives: 6 Ways to Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions

Ditch the New Year’s resolutions! We all know they eventually fade sometime between January 1st and Valentine’s Day. Our coaches have weighed-in on some simple strategies you can start implementing right now to lay the ground for your best year yet. Are you ready? It starts now.

1. Don’t wait

Why wait until January 1st to start something new, to dream about a bucket list item, to set a personal goal or to make a promise to yourself ? Start today, start any day, with one small step, one small change that you can implement in a consistent manner. Real change is all about consistency!

2. Purposely reflect on the past year

Choose only one event from this past year and try to analyze it: what went well, what can you use from this event in the future, what you could have done differently and what are the lessons learned that can help in similar situations or other aspects of your lives. Start applying your findings to your day to day life and when you become aware of the ways in which your life is changing by applying all or parts of these learnings, you can move on to another event – invest time again in analyzing it and applying your findings to your day to day life. And one event after another, your life will slowly improve without overwhelming New Year’s resolutions.

3. Simplify

Begin by clarifying what is most important for you in the year ahead – you can always find time for what you value the most. A mindful focus will allow you to let go of distractions and build upon what is already working well. And to remain intentional and nurture the seeds of wellbeing, ask yourself what you can do to be 5% happier each day. After all, in the big scheme of things, joy is the ultimate currency!

4. Abandon goals – set long term aspirations instead

More important than the achievement of any individual goal, is the discipline of investing time and effort towards a desirable destination. Clarifying your aspiration like for example “developing healthy eating habits” can provide the daily guidance required to make good decisions at every meal. Rewarding yourself for progress towards the aspiration rather than the achievement of any prescribed outcome. Contrast that to the goal of “losing 10 pounds” which is an effect of healthy choices, and when stated as a goal in isolation, disconnected from the actual cause it is easier to abandon when the outcome doesn’t magically appear.

5. Adopt the ‘3by3’ Process

Achieve what matters most to you. Here is my ‘3by3’ Process. 3 imperatives and 3 vital questions:

Step 1: What are your top 3 personal imperatives for 2020 and beyond?

Step 2: Ask yourself these Three Vital Questions continuously with the intent to gently guide yourself towards empowered actions, sometimes with very small baby steps and then other times quantum leaps… THE GOAL IS TO KEEP MOVING.

– Question 1: Where are you putting your focus? ( the problem or the outcome)

– Question 2: How are you relating? (to yourself, others and situations)

– Question 3: What actions are you taking?

6. Help Others

A lot of people make new year’s resolutions to be healthier, lower stress, and experience more wellbeing. Interestingly, research shows that actively helping others is a better predictor of health and wellbeing, more than receiving help or just social engagement. It sounds counter-intuitive, but feeling overwhelmed is a sign that is time to offer support. There are infinite ways to do that, but I particularly like the 21-days kindness challenge from kindspring.org. Amelia Earhart once said, “A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.”

Are you ready for your best year yet? Applying these simple strategies and making the decision to work with a coach can have a transformational effect on your life.

Find a coach today!

Grand Heron International
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