Look Backward Before Setting Resolutions

Before you blurt out some new resolutions for the new year, I’d suggest you 1st look backward for insight.

If you failed in accomplishing goals for 2012, ask yourself “why?” What kept you from staying the course? What did you allow to be more important than your goals? When did you lose steam and give up, and why? If you don’t learn from past mistakes, you are probably doomed to repeat them this year too.

If you were successful with your resolutions in 2012, 1st of all celebrate yourself and your victories. Taking a moment to do this creates positive energy, confidence, and enthusiasm in going forward with new goals. Take a few moments to figure out why you were successful, how you kept at it, and what supports helped the most. Then repeat these strategies in 2013.

Then take some quiet time to reflect on what intentions would be most important for you to achieve this year. Keep all “SHOULDS” out of it, and don’t let yourself be pressured into resolutions that “everybody else is doing” like losing weight or going to the gym 4 times a week. These kind of goals quickly lose their luster and it is pretty near impossible to keep motivated.

Intentions that are YOURS, that you are really invested in for YOUR reasons; these are the ones that you will most likely be committed to for the long haul. And when you achieve them, the victory will be all yours too, which feels much more fulfilling.

Don’t jump into the new year with resolutions that are not well thought out or ones that you are not fully committed to. If you do, you will end up discouraged and mad at yourself, both recipes for an unhappy new year.