May I wish everyone a really happy and healthy new year!
The start of a new year is often a time that we think about what we would really like to achieve in our lives, it offers the chance of a clean slate, a time when we can put negativity behind us and think about different ways and possibilities that we could improve ourselves in some way.
Although we can start off feeling very confident and positive about these planned-for changes, very often we find that it is nigh on impossible to keep to our original plans as we find ‘real life’ in the form of stresses, time limitations, challenging people etc. get in the way, and so we tend to give up. And then what happens is that this episode of ‘giving up’ is stored in our mind as another little ‘failure’ to remind us how hopeless we are when it comes to achieving our goals.
Can I suggest a few hints and tips which may help you to achieve what you want to achieve, whether this is a healthy body, good grades in your exams, confidence at work?
1)Keep it simple – when thinking about your goal, make sure that it is realistic and achievable, and be very precise about exactly what you want to achieve. Don’t be tempted to stop smoking, lose weight and train for a marathon at the same time.
2)Give yourself a realistic time frame in which to achieve your goal.
3)Visualise how you will be when you have achieved it – really see yourself, feel the feeling, hear what people are saying. The more detailed you can be in this, the better – perhaps you could even have an image or a photo to help keep you on track.
4) Make the time to have at least 10 minutes per day when you can completely relax and switch off, call it self-hypnosis, meditation, whatever you like, it is a brilliant way to de-stress and get rid of what I call the ‘grrrs’ – we all have them.
5) Be good to yourself, have healthy and spirit-lifting rewards to keep you going.
6) Notice how much better you are feeling.
7)THIS ONE IS REALLY IMPORTANT – if you have a day or two in which you ‘fall off the wagon’ this does not matter, there is no such thing as failure. Just get back on again as soon as you can.
Good luck in whatever you wish for in 2012!
All the best,
Wendy x
