“What could possibly be left?” I hear you cry.

Simple. Making sure that you recognise the biggest barrier that stands between most people and their successful outcome, and getting around it with ease.

And no, that barrier isn’t getting discouraged or running out of steam (which should happen less in the light of the specific steps you’ve already taken in making the resolution).

The barrier

The biggest potential barrier is simple. Breaking the resolution. Or, more precisely, your reaction if/when you do “fall off the wagon” and go back to your old behaviour.. (Pay special attention to this if your resolution is already fading!)

Instead of thinking, “Well, I’ve broken my resolution now, so that’s it.”, try another thought, such as, “Oh, OK, I had a lapse. Well, changes hardly ever happen in a smooth straight line. I’ve already done well to start making this change, I’ll just go back to my new habit.”

Or, using the “wagon” analogy again, remind yourself that,This wagon isn’t going to roll away without me. Any time I fall off it, all I have to do is climb straight back on again. If I keep climbing enough times, eventually this new behaviour will stick.

Extrboosts

And, should you feel in need of extra motivation to keep getting back to a new habit, consider three things:

1) What “payoff” does your old behaviour give you? Eg. people who over-shop tend to enjoy the adrenaline rush of getting their hands on the goods, and even handing over the card. So, that person might have to think of other, more supportive, ways to get a similar rush.

2) Allow yourself to dwell on the “you” you’ve chosen to become by 31st December, often, and in detail.

3) How can you reward yourself for each period of time you stick to the new habit? Eg if you have little free time, schedule extra for each day on which you exercise, if that’s related to your resolution.

As a general rule of thumb, short timescales leading to small rewards a little and often keep a person’s motivation higher than huge occasional rewards, which “don’t seem worth waiting for” when your patience and self discipline are already being tested. Also, it’s important that the reward you give yourself supports or is neutral in relation to your original resolution. Eg. rewards in the shape of cream cakes might not support your diet, but giving yourself more “me-time” would.

Otherwise, just use your imagination, and enjoy not just fulfilling your resolution by the end of this year, but reaping all those rewards along the way as well.

Hope this helps.

More soon

Clare

In yesterday’s post, there was a question about “the smallest habit” you could do on a daily (or regular) basis that would support you on the road to reaching the state you want by the end of this year. This is because small actions slip “under your radar”, and therefore are less likely to meet with any resistance from your unconscious mind. Nonetheless, when you add them together, form an impressive body of results when you add them together.

For example, if your goal or outcome is to reach a defined level of fitness, just ten minutes of a certain exercise on each of the 366 days this year would be the equivalent of doing the same exercise non-stop for almost 13 days. Not to mention the cumulative strength you’d get over time, that wouldn’t be available after such an exhausting couple of weeks…Or the ease with which you can carry out your “simple” habit once you’ve repeated it the first few times.

There may even be other changes that naturally occur, once the repetition of this simple habit effortlessly alters your perception of yourself to allow other changes in. Continuing with the “fitness” example, the ten-minute exercise might then also spill over, a few months down the line, into your feeling healthier. As we tend to be wired to maintain a steady state, you’d then probably be motivated to maintain that healthy feeling. In turn, that may translate into your wanting to make simple changes to your diet. ( I can personally vouch for this having happened to me, last year, and much to my surprise).

So, small and simple habits really work. If you’ve already thought of one, great. If not, please do so now. And then…Please make it even simpler or easier.

I know, that’s an odd request. But the majority of people are unused to being asked to do something simple and easy, and tend to over-estimate how much they’ll feel motivated to do on a daily basis, but to underestimate the cumulative effect of tinier actions. For instance, if your goal is to complete a novel this year, ask yourself whether you’ll be better to produce 250 words per day that feel easy to achieve each whatever else is going on, or 1000 that only appear on the days when your boss/kids/partner/friends/family (delete or add as applicable) don’t vie for your attention.

(In case you were wondering about that, by the way, 250 words x 366 days comes to 91,500 words, or a 305-page novel at 300 words per page.)

Enough said. In the next post, we’ll be talking about how you can remove the blocks to your own progress…including one of the biggest resolution-killers of them all.

Hope this helps.

More soon.

Clare

But enough of such idealism…It may not be blending well with the “morning after” feeling. On to the next stage of the resolution making process.

Yesterday, we talked about what you’d like to be feeling, doing, and experiencing on December 31st that’s different from today. Keep that thought and feeling in mind on a daily basis especially before sleep. But in addition, your task today is to set out the milestones on the path towards that feeling.

Please also think about how you’ll want to think, feel and experience things differently:

-Halfway through the year (ie June 30th/July 1st)
-Halfway between that date and the December 31st target(ie around 30th September/October 1st)
-By March 31st

In this way, you’ve now divided your journey towards the resolution into more manageable chunks…(But remember, you can also subdivide those chunks in the same way, if it helps).

Is this the end of the process? No. By the end of the week we’ll have covered a few more things you need to consider to come up with an attractive and “do-able” resolution.

But please remember, there’s no need to wait for the next blog to get started. Put your enthusiasm and motivation to work by spending time thinking and feeling the yourney towards success that you’ve just mapped out.

And if you’ve still time left over after all that, let yourself ponder this question:

Which is the one, smallest possible change can you make to your daily routine and habits that will support you as you move towards your desired 31st December outcome?

More on why that’s important in the next post.

Hope this helps

Clare