Its that time of the season again! New Years Eve brings celebration of renewed hope and optimism for the upcoming year. But where did the tradition of making New Years resolutions come from? And how do you make this years promises more effective than past years?
The first origins seem to be rooted in Babylonian times approximately 4000 years ago. As the New Year started with farming season they would resolve to return any borrowed farm equipment. The Romans too would set goals for levels of accomplishment in the coming year. The Chinese added in the tradition of fully cleaning their houses at this time of year, which has mutated in the western world to “spring cleaning”.
In modern times we love to set goals for ourselves during New Years, from weight loss to quitting smoking, vowing to save money, be on time, go to church, you name it. But how successful are we?
We all start out with the best of intentions. This will be the year we succeed! But for a lot of us, once the sparkle and excitement of New Year’s Eve is gone, so is our motivation. We slip right back into our old routine and patterns, only now we are paying for a gym membership we don’t even use. As humans this is our nature and a tough thing to overcome, but don’t loose hope – it can be done!
Choose a goal that is realistic. By setting fantastical goals that you don’t really believe you can reach, all you are doing is setting yourself up for failure and causing subconscious disappointment in yourself further hampering your ability to attain what you really want.
When you break an agreement with yourself, it is not any less damaging than it would be to a relationship with another person. Only it is between you and yourself – and that is the most important relationship of them all. So rather than promising yourself that you are going to work out every day and lose 100 lbs, start smaller. Agree that you are going to go and work out 3 days a week and make a sincere effort to live healthy. Once you begin to keep agreements with yourself, you will feel better. The exercise doesn’t hurt either!
It has been proven in various scientific studies that it takes 30 days to form a new habit, pattern or routine. If you can commit to 30 days, chances are you will achieve your goal! The reward is two fold. First you gain attainment of the object of your set desire, but you also feel amazingly good about yourself for having the stick-to-itiveness to do so.
So this year go for it! Choose what you want and make it happen. You are the master of your destiny and can accomplish anything you set your mind to.
Happy New Year from all of us here at HCBL.
