My goodness - already! We are almost a month into the new year. Maybe you made some resolutions, maybe you didn’t, as so many of us have read that “resolutions don’t work”. You’ve probably at least had a thought or two (or a 5-page manifesto) about how you’d like to improve your life in the new year.
If you’ve implemented those changes and are sticking to them, congratulations - that is awesome!
If not, here are 7 steps to getting rolling again, right now, regardless of what day it is. It does not have to be January 1, or a Monday, or the beginning of any month to begin again. Today is a perfect time.
1. Seek help. You don’t have to do this alone. Even if you started great on your own, if you’re finding yourself flagging, get some help. Hire someone to help - with personal training, housecleaning, wellness coaching, writing, etc. Find a friend to join you and work on your goals together. Create or join a group. Set up a text message system with a buddy where you support each other through the tough spots.
2. Master and embrace the small step. This is the hardest thing for me and for my clients. Why? Because you really want to do your new thing for 30 minutes a day or an hour a day. You envision a future with all kinds of wide-open time to be able to do this. You don’t want to start doing a new habit for only ten minutes a day. How do you write a book in ten minutes a day? However, the best steps are very small ones taken consistently. If you had planned to spend an hour a day writing and have only done that twice in the past 14 days, you would have been ahead by 20 minutes of time invested had you just spent 10 minutes each day. Crazy but true. And wouldn’t 10 minutes a day have seemed easy? And then you wouldn’t have had to berate yourself the other 12 days, which leads us to…
3. Have compassion for yourself. Nothing kills a goal-setting program faster than meanness toward yourself. Just stop it. Direct all that energy back toward your goal. See above and take the tiniest little step. Then do it again tomorrow. And remind yourself you are awesome.
4. Return to the big picture. Ask yourself why? Why did you decide this shift in the new year was important? Why are you doing this? What is your long term goal or outcome? How will your life be fabulously better as you embrace this new routine, goal or habit? Remember to imagine the long term result of what you are working on and why it is important to you. Imagine it as you drift off to sleep. Come back to your why.
5. Prioritize your feelings. It is much much much easier to make change from a positive feeling state. Focusing on your big why can help you get back to that warm feeling of why you were making this change in the first place, and give you some energy to keep going. Allow yourself to be in a positive emotional place now, while you work toward your goal. You don’t have to postpone your happiness.
6. Wrangle your thinking. Your mind has a terrible habit of ballooning any missed day as the end of the world. It will then throw every other failure in your face. It will remind you that you are not worthy or capable. That is OK. Minds are just like that. Be gentle with your mind. It is trying to help you and protect you with these thoughts and keep you safe in “no-change land”. Soothe your mind with a gentle word or two and then keep going.
7. Tell the truth. Your mind also loves to twist around circumstances and blame something else. The weather. Another person . An unforeseen circumstance. Gently stick with the truth. You can run when it’s 30 degrees. You can write when it’s dark. You can stay off social media between 10 pm and 7:30 a.m. even when you’d prefer to stay up all night watching David Bowie tribute videos. (This one is mine- call me out if you see me on social media after 10 p.m. central!) Be gently truthful with yourself. You are capable of making these changes, big or small. You do have what it takes. You are worthy. You are amazing!
Need a little boost? Email me your tiny daily step (try for something 10 minutes or less), then go do it, then email me when you complete it. I will be thrilled to cheer you on!