New Year resolutions – how many have you set yourself in the past? And how many have you kept?

Resolutions are a really common thing to set yourself at the start of a new year – if you Google New Year Resolutions you get over 191,000,000 results so it is easy to see how many people buy into the idea.

For the New Year, many people set themselves resolutions – and as we know, so often by this time in January, many have already been abandoned or forgotten. There are a number of issues relating to resolutions:

• They often involve breaking engrained habits, which we all know can be a challenge – hypnotherapy can help here though 🙂
• They tend to be focus on very specific outcomes, which may make us feel we can’t meet them quickly enough and so we become very frustrated
• The purpose of the resolution might not be as motivating or meaningful to you once you are busy again and so you don’t prioritise it

I think another issue with resolutions is that they are often quite short term – I want to lose a stone in January” or unrealistic “I will start running every day” (hmmm, this is not mine as I am not a runner, never have been, never will!).

I used to set New Year Resolutions and then found I felt much worse when a few weeks down the line when I hadn’t made the progress that I had expected or hoped for. So I have started to set myself an intention for the year ahead instead – an intention tends to be broader, so I might decide that I am going to be healthier in 2021 – this would then allow me to work on a number of different aspects of my health over the year – I could exercise more, eat better, take vitamins, drink less and so much more, that would work towards my overall intention.

I find that this removes the unrealistic short term goals I am tempted to set myself. I am able to break down what I want to achieve into a number of smaller, more manageable steps that can be implemented over the year and I can re-focus if needed as I go through the year. So, for example, if like me, you can suffer from back pain, and my aim is to be healthier by the end of the year, I could change what I focus on to still achieve my goal, even if my back won’t allow me to do as much exercise as I would like, and so on.

Intentions don’t demand that we are perfect, but just that we try.

The other big positive (and I am big on positives at the moment) is that it allows me to really acknowledge at the end of the year all the positive steps I have taken towards my intention, rather than the failures I may have had. I can then feel I have attained something, made a difference to myself and my life and it helps me stay positive whilst still giving me a focus.

If you need more tips on setting an intention, think about the following:

• Find something to focus on that will make you happy
• Make it positive
• Work on something you think will make a difference to you – something that holds value for you
• Share it with someone – a friend or family member so they can support you when you are feeling down and thinking negatively

So, for 2021, what is my intention, I can hear you asking?

My intention for this year is DEVELOPMENT – for my business, myself and professionally.

There’s so many steps I can take here to achieve this and I know it will move me forward and be really helpful. So, when I review my intention, in December this year, I will let you know how I’ve got on!

What intention might you set for 2021? It’s not too late to start!

Let me know by emailing me – alison@galenehypnotherapy.co.uk

Photo by Pablo de la Fuente on Unsplash