One week ago today we were all still pretty excited about the new year 2017.
Some of us might have still felt a little drunk and others full of engergy to finally pursue their good resolutions.
This year, EVERYTHING will be different. And when I say different, I mean better!
Does that sound familliar to you? Well, personally I have to admit that I somehow can relate to that claim - of course, else I would not have created this blog.
But still, I feel that for me the point is not to make everything different and neither that all of what I did before has to be improved.
I think it is more about challenging myself on the next level and to see how far I can get with it.
I don't know how you feel right now about your resolutions. Maybe you are already in your first big down? Holidays are over, real life started and all of a sudden it is less easy to stick up to the new rules you set to yourself.
Maybe you already feel like you failed because you did not achieve your targets and motivation is decreasing to its lowest point?
Or, maybe you still feel motivated. Integrating your resolutions in your daily life was not as hard as you thought? You almost don't recognize that something has changed?
This difference in people's feelings about their new years resolutions leads me to the next question:
How high should we set our targets? The higher the better?
Personally, I always had the impression that there were two kinds of people.
On the one hand those that set their targets quite low. The target they set is not the actual target. They may say "I will eat salad once a week" which is an easy target. The actual target is "I want to live healthier. Therefore, I won't eat fastfood anymore". Almost too easy for a resolution, but they can be sure to achieve their target.
On the other hand, there are people that set their target inachievably high. For example a person that has a very demanding job, never did any sport and now says "I will go for a run five times a week".
I don't say that it is impossible for that person to live up to their resolutions but it is more difficult to achieve than what person one said.
What is the sense in setting high targets?
The sense is that when you set a really high target you will give all you can to get there. Maybe he won't go for a run five times a week, but maybe he'll manage to go three times. If he had set an easier goal, such as going for a run once a week he would never have known that he was able to do the triple of that.
What to do to stick with your resolutions?
I am no professional coach, nor am I someone who has a great story of success. Though, I think I found the right way to do things for me.
In my case, it is this blog that is my guideline to stay motivated. I have three big goals for my life that I showed you on the "About..." page of this blog.
In a quick reumee it is:
1. Change my body
2. Go, and travel the world
3. Write and publish my own book before I am 30.
To get there, I set weekly goals to myself that are kind of easy to achieve but at the end will (hopefully) lead to the big result.
My resolutions are: Eat healthy, do sport! I bought a program that helps me stick to this resolutions. There are receips in it from which I can choose and I have three home workouts per week that I have to do at least. I did this for 6 weeks now and I can already see changes on my body. This is what keeps me motivated!
When it comes to traveling, of course, I need money. So, when I start my job on monday I will try to give my best every single week. The better my results, the more I get paid (I have a performance related prime in my contract) the more I can travel during my holidays.
For the book: I reserved my sundays and my evenings to the book. It is a story that I have on my mind for years already. But also writing itself is something that cheers me up. This blog also is something I love but that I won't let consume all of my time.
So now, my coffee and I say good bye. I will get my very late breakfast (of course conform to my program) and profit a last time from the fact that it's unbelievably cold outside but I can stay inside with no need to move.
Later I will do my last sport routine for this week and then I will have a look on my little characters that are wandering around in my story.
Have a great day, don't give up on your resolutions! Change them to goals that keep you marching without losing your breath and without having you falling asleep because you don't demand anything of yourself at all.
