As 2020 comes to a close, we will all be looking back at 2020 and seeing how what we have achieved. With the new year upon us, there will obviously be a need and want to craft new resolutions for 2021.
How Was 2020 For You?
2020 was a hard year for everyone, and it seems that it might not get as much easier as we have all hoped it would be. But the team here at FLOW Coaching Institute would like to first congratulate you on getting through one of the craziest years of modern history. With pandemics, natural disasters, political unrest, and even racial unrest - it has been an exhausting and trying year for a lot of people, around the world.
When it comes to the New Year, the one thing you will hear about the most is - Resolutions. Especially with the year we have had, we can see that everywhere on social media and on the news people are praying and hoping for a better year in 2021. Everyone is also doing their part in creating goals and resolutions for themselves so that they can create and transform 2021 into a year of abundance and growth.
Maintaining Resolutions
We are all guilty of creating resolutions, that secret list of things like exercising more, being more mindful, meditating more, checking off that things off your bucket list and so much more. Then, January hits, and things are awesome for a few weeks and then, life happens. And somehow, the cycle starts again where work takes over, or family priorities take over, and somehow all of the awesome plans you had will have taken the backseat.
So, what is this resistance we all feel when it comes to focusing and staying on the bandwagon of achieving resolutions? According to a study by Franklin Covey, it’s because sometimes we might get a little too excited and overzealous when we create them. Almost 40% of us then blame our busy schedules for the serious lack of follow-through which is why it seems that a lot of people break their New Year Resolutions.
Non-commitment, busy schedules, and a serious case of over-optimism seems to be the main causes of not being able to maintain resolutions.
What Can You Do To Overcome This Resolution Resistance?
Flow Coaching Institute has coached and mentored hundreds of people and we find that there are a few things and questions that you can do and ask yourself to pick the best resolutions for you and be able to stick with them.
Most of the time, we don’t ask ourselves the right questions and we tend to follow what everyone else is doing without looking internally and realizing what are the best goals and resolutions for us in our current time and being now.
Questions to Ask Yourself To Resolutions That Resonate
- What are the three main things that you want to stop doing?
- This is the bucket that you should start with first so that you know what you DO NOT want.
- Once you know what you do not want any more in your life it will become easier to see what you actually want.
- Believe and trust that you can actually do less of what you dislike.
- This can be habits, work, thought patterns, and even tasks that you feel are not serving you anymore.
2. What are the three main things you like doing and would love to do more of?
- Once you’ve answered your dislikes, this would be a lot simpler to answer.
- What makes your soul sing? What is it that you want to look forward to when you wake up?
- It can be a hobby, a job that you’ve always wanted to apply for, or even a habit that you want to instill.
3. Which three main areas do you want to evolve in?
- Evolving can mean different things here, it can be mentally, or even skills-wise.
- How do you want to grow and how would you like to show up in the world?
With these questions, now you can curate a resolution list that resonates and works with what you want to achieve. This way, you are more inclined to want to see it through because is it deeply rooted in the way you want to grow, be, and show up in the world.
Steps To Overcome The Resistance
We have put together 4 simple steps that we think you can use whenever you want to when you feel that fire dissipate or when you need a bit more motivation, use these methods to help get that fire back.
Picking resolutions that resonate with you.
- This is easily done once you’ve practiced asking those questions we mentioned above.
Create your anchor image or vision board
- When you know the resolutions you want, we suggest creating an image for it. Something that is tangible and can be seen so that you are reminded daily about it.
- This way the probability of you forgetting about it or not being as motivated lessens significantly because it’s always there to remind you about what you truly want.
Set Guidelines
- A lot of times, new years resolutions fail because we do not have set guides and timelines in place, so the mind will always say things like tomorrow, or next time.
- Once you have guidelines, it will be much easier to follow them and stick to it.
Plan Your Goals Out
- Once you have the goals and the timelines in which you want to achieve them, you can now put it all on paper!
- Plan out the steps you need to take to ensure that you reach your new year's resolutions and goals.
- And whenever you feel like you are not sure what needs to be done, or if you are feeling a little demotivated, you can then look back at these plans and it should set you back up in shape.
So there you have it - our thoughts on New Years Resolutions, keeping them, maintaining them, and thriving at them.
We wish you all the best and for a much more eventful 2021 ahead for you.
How do you maintain your New Years Resolutions? We would love to hear from you!
Written by: Tashya Viknesh
Approved by: Talyaa Vardar (author mentioned in this article)