It’s 2017 and you’ve made you’re New Year’s Resolution. Have you considered how you are going to make it successful and stick with it this year?
There is a reason why only 8% of people who make New Year’s resolutions are successful. You need a systematic approach to maintain your resolution and successfully stick to it. It begins with your decision to make a change as you have expressed in your New Year’s Resolution. But in order for that decision to become reality, it requires that you develop activities that become habits that are second nature to you and will keep you moving in the right direction.
As with any goal you want to achieve, you will encounter problems and obstacles that will challenge your commitment to fulfill your resolution. You will have to make the decision whether you are like most people and quit your resolution or fight through the challenges and stick with it. Fighting through happens when your initial confidence – in some cases that may even be arrogance… is confronted with the reality that sticking to your New Year’s resolution is harder than you thought it was going to be and you commit to go through the rounds of obstacles and challenges to win. And it takes several rounds of fighting through battles with yourself before your activities become a habit that is second nature.
To help you train yourself to win this year, here are our TOP 7 TECHNIQUES:
#1 Create a Ritual
Schedule your new habit to make it a ritual. If your new habit is going to the gym every day, schedule it. Block out the same time on your calendar every day and make this commitment to going to the gym a non negotiable, like you would when scheduling a meeting for work. Ritualizing your new habit takes most of the thinking out of the process and you won’t have to wonder every day when you may be able to get to the gym.
#2 Recognize and Label
When you get to day five and you’re lying in your warm bed debating whether getting up and battling the snow and freezing cold to get to the gym, recognize what is happening to you. Learn to say to yourself: ‘I’ve encountered an obstacle and entered a fight through battle.’ Recognizing and labeling this is like taking off a blindfold before the fight starts because now you are aware that you are fighting. And each time you win fighting through the obstacles makes winning the next one easier. Of course, the opposite is just as true. Each time you lose a battle of fighting through makes it easier to quit the next time.
#3 Ask Yourself Two Important Questions
When you encounter your obstacle, coach yourself to ask two important questions:
* How will I feel if I win this round of fighting through?
* How will I feel if I loose this round of fighting through?
These two questions bring your emotions and feelings into the process and connecting an experience with emotions and feelings promotes action. If we go back to your resolution of going to the gym every day and you hit a battle, don’t sit down on the couch and have a bag of chips. If you can imagine how you feel after a good workout, you are probably going to feel good about yourself and for sure a lot healthier. If you don’t go and stay on your coach, you will probably feel like a failure or at the very least experience negative emotions and feelings towards yourself for not meeting your goal. Either way, positive or negative emotions are powerful motivators to hep you win the fight.
#4 Visualize Your Future
Take a few minutes and in great detail think about where your life will be a year from now if you consistently win your battles. Be brutally honest and let yourself feel the benefits of constantly winning. Take a breath and then go through the same process and suffer the feelings of defeat after losing and giving up. Embrace these techniques and you will see what kind of impact they have on the outcome. Let’s assume you’ve been successful and won your battles. You have developed a new habit that has become part of your regular routine. Going to the gym no longer feels like something you have to intentionally remember or push yourself to do so. It’s become second nature and it’s normal to feel proud of yourself. But keep your guard up!
#5 Beware of Discouragement
When you work hard and you don’t immediately see results and the habit that you are trying to create isn’t immediately reinforced, it’s easy to slip into a negative mindset. You start to tell yourself that all of this is pointless and you are never going to succeed. Shut down the negative mindset right away. Discouragement will kill your commitment to keep trying. But one thing is for sure… If you keep trying, you will win in the end!
#6 Protect your Routine
Right before summer, you started a new diet and workout routine, which worked great, because you were motivated by the impending beach season. But then Thanksgiving rolls around and you get distracted with the Holiday season and sabotage yourself with too much Holiday cheer. Now it’s January and you are right back where you started in May. Any break in your routine disrupts the positive habits you have successfully created. So no matter what distractions come up, no matter how enticing they may be, stick to your routine and protect it with everything you’ve got. You don’t want your hard work to be for nothing.
#7 Beware of the Seduction of Success
You’ve won several battles of fighting through and you changed your habits and behavioral patters, now you feel like the king (or queen of course) of the world and feel unbeatable. It’s in our human nature to think that we’ve got this down and don’t have to work as hard anymore. Don’t let your success seduce you. It’s only a matter of time before you begin to slip. The first and most important part to avoid the danger of seduction is recognizing it. At this point, anytime you catch yourself making excuses for not sticking to your new routine, you can be sure that you entered the seduction zone and are in danger to wind up right back where you started. To fight the seduction of success, push yourself a little harder for a little while longer… Do 10 more sit-ups and you will mentally reinforce your ability to win. Remember, just as physical exercise makes your body stronger, perseverance and the willingness to fight through obstacles will make you mentally stronger.
Stick with this system and winning becomes your new habit!
COMMIT TO SUCCESS IN 2017!
Joschi & Monika
#BoldNaked
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