New Year Resolutions:

A New Perspective

positivetranceformations.com.au

It’s that time of year when people review

their lives and their goals.

There’s something about the blank

pages of a diary (or a journal) for the

upcoming year that is somehow

inspiring and filled with a bit of wonder

and mystery.

What’s the year going to hold?

Will it be better or worse than last year,

or just the same?

New Year resolutions tend to be part of

this process of reviewing a lifestyle.

It’s also the time of year when

hypnotherapists tend to be quite busy,

as some of the most common New Year

resolutions are to lose weight and to

quit smoking – and hypnosis is often

used to help achieve these goals.

But this article isn’t about weight loss

or giving up smoking, and isn’t a plug

for hypnotherapy to do this. Instead, it’s

a look at New Year resolutions and

how to have a greater chance of

achieving them.

For a start off, let’s start with a change

of terminology. How often do we talk

about “resolutions” outside of the

context of committee meetings?

And even in the business context,

resolutions are just part of a bigger

process – they’re decisions that have

been made about plans, goals and

actions to be taken.

We’ll talk about goals, dreams and plans

instead.

However, the word “resolution” does

contain a clue about the most

important factor in the whole process of

improving or changing a life.

It’s to do with the word “resolve”, which

is an old-fashioned word meaning

willpower or determination.

And whether or not you manage to keep

your New Year resolutions – whoops, I

mean goals – often comes down to the

mind and your beliefs.

Hypnosis can be used to help with a lot

of these things in the mind, whatever

they are, as it’s what we believe in the

deepest part of ourselves that really

influences our actions.

Anyway, back to the process of making

New Year goals.

The first thing is the timing.

January the first probably isn’t the best

time to make these goals and plans,

especially if you’ve partied a bit hard

the night before.

The “morning after” syndrome tends

to produce fuzzy thinking and the main

goal, plan or resolution made by people

who are hung over tends to be

something along the lines of “I will

never, ever do anything like that again!”

Even if you only had a couple of glasses

of wine or just stuck to the orange juice,

seeing the New Year in and staying up

to midnight means that you’re probably

not at your best and you aren’t thinking

as clearly as you might be.

A better plan is to enjoy the day off and

just relax without thinking about your

life goals, get an early night to make up

for lost sleep and to take a bit of time on

January the 2nd to do the planning and

setting your goals for the year.

The next part of the process is to think

about what you would like to achieve in

the year in your personal life.

Often, New Year goals are about

breaking bad habits – smoking, excess

drinking and being overweight – but not

all of your plans and goals have to be

negative things about not doing this or

giving up that.

However, you can frame your goals in a

positive way or look at things that you’d

like to start doing or do more of. t’s

probably more helpful to frame your

goals in a positive way, as the phrases

you write down or say out loud engrain

themselves into your mind and into

your thinking patterns.

If you continually mention “smoking”,

even in the context of “I will give up

smoking”, you are thinking about

smoking and reminding yourself of it.

It’s far better to get what you don’t want

to do right out of your mind and focus

on what you do want.

When you set your New Year goals, it’s

best to have something specific that you

can aim to do.

Some things are all-or-nothing issues

(such as becoming free from a tobacco

addiction and rediscovering smells and

tastes, aka giving up smoking).

Others need to be defined. For example,

the goal of losing weight and/or

exercising more is a bit vague and is

thus harder to stick to, as you can’t get

a clear mental picture of what you want

to achieve.

It’s better to have a more definite goal,

such as “I will get my weight below 80

kg,” or “I will go for a run around the

block at least three times a week.”

A lot of people can’t think past weight

loss, exercise, addictions (e.g. tobacco

and alcohol) when it comes to New Year

goals. But why not think outside the

box and look at your whole life rather

than just your health?

Here are a handful of ideas to get you

started (some of which have been this

writer’s New Year goals in the past – but

I’m not telling you which ones!):

1. To try four new activities over the next 12

months. That’s one new thing to try every

three months. You don’t have to succeed

at what you try – you just have to give it

a go. These activities don’t have to be

extreme or expensive – it could be

something as small as learning some sort

of craft, trying a new cuisine (either

cooking it or eating it) or having a go at a

sport you’ve never tried.

2. Eating more fresh fruit and

vegetables, especially raw ones. The

pros tell us that we should eat at

least five servings of fruit and

vegetables a day, preferably raw and

preferably more than five. And eat a

range of colours – red, blue/purple,

green, orange, yellow and white.

3. Look beyond coffee when choosing

things to drink as a way of cutting

down on caffeine. Try some herbal

teas instead – some are delicious.

4. Write a letter (yes, a paper letter

and not an email) to an out-of-town

relative every month.

5. Keep a journal.

6. Say more positive things about yourself

rather than putting yourself down.

7. Get into the habit of chatting with

checkout staff as a way of overcoming

shyness and social anxiety.

8. Throw out all the clutter in one room in

the house.

Write your goals down and read them

out loud. What you say and imprint into

your mind is more likely to become

reality.

And find a way to keep yourself

accountable.

positivetranceformations.com.au