New Years Resolutions – are you still on track?

Already some time into the New Year, and many of us started with the best resolutions. But even though you are still on track, it’s not always so easy to follow through. Let’s take a look why it is sometimes so hard to really keep up with the good new habits.

It takes time to create a habit

First of all, it takes time to create a new habit. Let’s say you never got up before 10 am and your new plan or resolution is getting up at 6 am, you might face some tiredness and unwillingness to follow through with getting up that early. For the simple reason that you already have a habit, and that is getting up at 10. So to change this habit and make it the new normal, you and your body need some time to adjust. This is why at the beginning it is so hard to stay on track, but once you overcame this obstacle, you are likely to not fall back. What do you need to overcome this 30 days phase? As hard as it might be – your willpower. This is where you need to push through. You can make it easier, though, by finding someone who is doing it with you. The one day you don’t have motivation, your partner can help you push through.

You fu**ed up too soon

I love this one. It is the number one reason some people don’t even make it through the first week, or even the first day. Common example? You wanna quit smoking, and you did great for some hours, but then… this one thing happened. If that would not have happened, but it did. And you needed to relax and smoke this cigarette. And now it doesn’t matter anymore, because you already fu**ed up. STOP. It does matter! It always matters. So this is where we need to be a little kinder with ourselves. Mistakes happen, but just because a mistake happened, that does not mean you can never make it. You fall, you get up and keep going again. Also in this case, it might be very helpful to get yourself a coach that will assist you to cope with situations that are difficult to pull through.

You hit a plateau

A situation we all have for sure heard about – the diet New Year’s resolutions: This new diet promised the world to you, and you started enthusiastically. It worked for some time, just like promised, but from one day to the other, it stopped working. Even worth, without doing anything wrong, you put on some weight and feel bloated. Here’s where many people lose hope and cheat, thinking they can never make it and nothing works for them. It’s natural that on the way to success, we hit plateaus. It’s even natural that we might see a failure once in a while, a setback, something that makes us doubt we are still on a good track. What would you say if this is just a little test to see if you really want to succeed? The trick here is: be nice with yourself. Be patient with yourself. And keep going. Life is an up and down. You got this.

You compare yourself with others

I get it. Once you have this idea of succeeding, of this one thing that you want to reach, you’d prefer to be there right now. But you are not. You know the way to get there, and you start full of energy and motivation. But weeks go in and out, and nothing really happens. You look at the goal picture you already looked at months ago, but nothing really changed. Let’s say you wanted to do the standing split like me on that picture, but even after some months, you are not able to lift your leg significantly higher. And this is the point where people tend to quit. Because all the effort does not show the desired results. Friends, the yoga posture is the perfect example for this situation: every body is different, and for every body it takes different amounts of time to get to more flexibility, the body might react differently, even the right and left side of your body might respond differently and release tension slower or faster. And that is fine. The problem is not your body, but the picture you have in mind of how this should be, but it isn’t (yet). So don’t compare yourself with others, not even with yourself. Do your best, and you will see results.

Conclusion

There are some elements that are important to stay on track when it comes to New Year’s resolutions: A partner can help you because it will push your accountability, and as a very fundamental element to your success, consider get yourself a coach to work on your mindset. The mindset of acceptance, self love and patience. The mindset that will allow you to sink deeper in the very moment and through mindfulness rise up to the next level.

Above all resolutions: never forget to love yourself. Enough to keep going. Enough to be kind.

Here is an inspiration of loving New Year’s Resolutions and how to be kinder with yourself. Always.