When it comes to the new year, most people feel a sense of excitement for a fresh start and motivation to achieve the goals they had in the back of their mind during the previous year. Why don’t we just try and achieve these goals mid-year? That is the question of the century. It may be partly due to a lack of symbolic gesture for a new beginning. It could be because we would need to do it alone rather than with everyone else around the world. Or, finally because we just need that end of year break before we try and start again. Regardless of the reason, you might be wondering how to make this new year’s resolutions stick! It all starts with self-reflection.
Why Self Reflection Is Important
Self-reflection is the process of taking a deeper look at what works and does not work in our life. It helps you grow and develop as a person so you do not end up in the same cycle of bad habits or unhealthy behaviours. Overall, self-reflection shows you what you don’t want, and in turn what you do want.
Setting a New Year Resolution
- Once you are able to identify what you want to change, remind yourself of why this is important to you. How will it impact your life? Try to envision it. A life that you can see different is a life you know you can create.
- Be realistic, flexible and self-compassionate. Think about how many times you have attempted to enforce this new goal and it was unsuccessful due to high standards and expectations of yourself. Set yourself up for success and do not quit because you did not get it right the first time.
- Start with just a few. Usually more than a handful of new goals will result in a higher percentage for some of them to fall through. Keeping track of three-five broad goals will be more achievable. Such as, prioritising down time, moving my body, eating more regularly. These are not too detailed and cover a range of opportunities for success.
Great, so you have set your goals, how do we make sure we achieve them?
This can be achieved by following the triangle of self-reflection:
Thoughts (check your narrative): Ask yourself, am I enjoying this? what was the motivator for this change before and does it still stick? Are you being your own cheerleader ? can you hear your self-encouragement and acknowledgement? Or are you self-defeating in your words.
Feelings (emotional and physiological responses): Reflect on your emotional state. Change in emotions/physiology are important information of how we are coping in a situation or environment. If you feel down or anxious, that is a pretty good indication that something is not right and we need to make a change. Either externally, (what we are doing) or internally, (how we are talking to ourselves). Likewise, if we feel happiness and full of energy we know something is going right and we should do more of that.
Behaviour (what it says about you): if it is difficult to act on your new year’s goal, can you identify the barriers and challenges that are getting in the way and how can you apply resources, skills, and external support to help you continue on your journey. Sometimes it is as simple as adjusting your schedule or asking a friend for reinforcement and support.
