We’ve all made (and broken!) new years resolutions, and we’ve all seen wild success stories born from them. People can use them to completely turn their health around – lose enormous amounts of weight, quit smoking, drinking and other habits. But to be honest, despite all the miracle transformations and trips up Everest, new years resolutions have kind of a bad rep these days. They’ve been synonymous with aiming too high, eating only carrots for three days and then falling off the wagon. A symbol of good intentions doomed to fail when ‘real life’ sets in. People now assume resolutions are something that will be broken – so much so that you hear plenty of people (including me) making jokes like ‘my new years resolution is to eat too many crisps!’.
When someone says ‘my new years resolution is to lose X amount of weight!’ is it a resolution? Or just an intention? A resolution is a commitment of will and following through on a goal. The problem here isn’t that people fail more than they win, it’s that no one really defines the type of goal they have. And everyone knows you need to see the goal to shoot straight. What most resolutions should be called is New Years Intentions – not something iron-clad, but ideas about who you want to be this year.
So try this: write down one goal you will wholeheartedly commit to from January onward, and try your very best. Then, a shorter list of little things you intend to change gradually, like incorporating positive thinking or meditation into your day-to-day. We’ve made this handy worksheet so you can stick to your health goals in the new year!
For example, my list would be:
New Years Resolution: To commit to a sugar-free ketogenic eating program.
I’ve promised myself I would give quitting sugar the time and attention it needs – and a big lifestyle change like this is definitely for the ‘resolution’ section!
New Years Intentions:
- Incorporate meditation and controlled breathing into daily life
- Go to bed at a regular, reasonable time
- Cycle to work more
- Take a bottle of water with me everywhere
- Try ‘desk yoga’
See? It’s a lot less pressure if you just break it up and write it down. Download and print our little worksheet below and put it on your fridge!
Yogamasti
For more tips, tricks, meditations and info, like and follow us on Facebook or catch us on Instagram as @yogamasti. Our followers get exclusive offers and sneak peaks, and we love talking to customers! See you soon!
