One sparkly little MAGIC tip to help motivate you to continue with your 2016 Resolutions

So, it’s the end of January!  How are you getting along with all your New year’s Goals and Resolutions?

How much weight have you lost so far?  Are you going to the gym everyday? What about that new writing habit?  Have you been keeping up with your 1000 words a day? What about the 30 minutes a day of decluttering?

Did I scare you? 

Are you fidgeting in your seat and wiping your sweaty palms on your jeans?  Ouf.

 

Sorry!

I didn’t want to make you feel bad, but I did want to help get my point across.  If you have made little or no progress towards your goals since that initial gung-hu early January, super motivated go at it, it’s okay and totally normal. 

Most people come up with impossibly long lists of what they WANT to get done in the new year and I think most people honestly believe that they are going to achieve all of these things, then they give up or forget all about their resolutions by mid-January.

 

Because there is no magical fairy dust that will float down, all sparkly and pretty, and settle on your shoulders on New Year’s Eve as the ball drops in Times Square and dramatically change you and your habits and your ways the second the calendar year flips over.  But, we somehow believe that the new year holds these magical powers and so we set tonnes of goals, start off extremely motivated on January 1 and even throughout the first week of the year.  Then, our energy and enthusiam petter off and we eventually stop.

 

So what happens?

What happens to all that New Year’s motivation? Life happens.  And for the most part, there’s no plan. Just wishes and dreams, so we sort of forget what we set out to do.  That’s not to say none of it will get done, but with careful planning and regular check ins with how things are going, you will be able to check more things off of that wish list.

 

However, don’t set your self up for disaster!

Even if you meticulously plan out each and every one of your goals and dreams and break them down into doable, actionable steps, you are still only human and Molly Weasley still hasn’t shown up to share her wand!

 

If your goal list is long, maybe you’ve set yourself to exercise 1 hour a day, drink 8 glasses of water, eat only 1500 calories, send 10 letters a week and volunteer twice a week, and, and, and…  when you hadn’t been doing these things previously, I hate to say it, but you are going to fail.  

 

Sorry to break it to you, but it’s impossible for you to sustain this for a whole year without establishing these habits, one by one.

 I’m not saying that you can’t be on this schedule by December 31st, but you won’t be able to do it all by Jan 31.

 

Start small.

 

Slooooooow down!

If you do it piece by piece, you will see results that will build momentum that will spur you forward!

 

On January first, you set yourself the whole year to achieve these goals, not just January.  So, take your time and you can get there.  You have a whole year.  It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

 

Here’s my challenge for you:

What is the one goal that you are really passionate about achieving?  Start there. 

Now, what is one step or habit that you can start to get you moving towards that goal?

Do that!

 

For me, I’d love for my house to be less cluttered and more organised.  I know that I have a lot of work ahead of me, but I’m starting small.  On January 1 I chose to make my bed every day.  Yup, that’s it.  Have I made it everyday…uh…no… but, I’ve only missed a few days in the whole month!!  I've probably made my bed more times this month than I did all last year.

 

But, that’s not the best part!  The best part is that I liked the look of the nice neat bed so much that I tidied my night stand one day, and I’ve refused to let clutter build up there ever since.  Another day, I got rid of some clutter on the floor. A few days later, I was clearing my kitchen counters of the piles of paper and now, I’ve started in the geeklings’ rooms and got them involved…

 

All because I made myself make my bed!

 

This one little habit has snowballed and I like it!  Don’t force the snowballing, concentrate on one thing and see what happens.

Next month, I’ll continue with the bed, but I’ll add another habit. And in March I’ll add another, and so on through out the year.  January is not the only time that we can make resolutions and set goals for ourselves.

On December 31, when I review what I’ve done towards my 2016 goals, maybe I won’t be able to cross them all off of my list, but I’m sure I’ll be pretty close to where I want to be!  And I’ll be so much closer than I was on December 31, 2015.

 

Please share in the comments what one little thing you plan on doing now to get you closer to the goal you are most passionate about.  I’m off to make my bed!