(BlackDoctor.org) — Now that the New Year is well under way…are some of your New Year resolutions sounding hollow in your own ears? Did you fail to buy that gym membership that you rashly promised yourself on New Years Eve? Has your daily power walk turned into a daily stroll from the easy chair to the fridge and back again?
You may feel badly about this turn of events, but you and I both know that there’s only one thing you can do to change the current reality, and that’s to take the bull by the horns and get back in the saddle (taking the liberty to mix a few metaphors along the way).
Resolutions made on New Years Eve or New Years Day are just that—resolutions. They’re promises you’ve made, “resolving” to do something better or different in the New Year. That’s all well and good, and if those resolutions haven’t exactly panned out the way you thought they might, why not wipe the slate clean and start again?
The Self-Esteem Monster
If your self-made promises of working out five times a week at the gym or preparing for next fall’s half-marathon now feel like the overzealous ravings of an ambitious reveler on New Years Eve, don’t despair. And if your self-esteem has suffered from this lack of initiative on your part, the first thing you want to do is head that process off at the pass and shut down the self-esteem monster that could very well keep you from doing anything at all.
Remember, anything you do in the direction of your original resolution is positive forward movement, but if you allow your bad feelings about your relative inaction to prevent you from even getting started, then your plummeting self-esteem and self-blame will only serve to keep you glued to your easy chair and out of the proverbial saddle.
Back-to-Basics
At this point, getting started and generating momentum towards your goal is what you want.
So, for example, if you had resolved to work out at the gym five times a week but have not yet acted upon that notion, consider the possibility of walking fifteen minutes on four days of every week and see how it goes for a month. Next, if that goes pretty smoothly, perhaps you could resume the home calisthenics that you used to do, beginning with ten minutes per day, three days per week. Between the walking, pushups, and jumping jacks that you gently but insistently institute each week, your self-esteem will rise, you’ll feel better physically, and your appetite for more exercise will increase. You may also feel quite satisfied with your new routine and decide that your original idea was a little too much for you right now. The fact is, you’ve “rebooted” your original idea and are now feeling great that you’ve started a realistic plan that you can actually do!
It’s Applicable Anywhere
Remember, this technique of getting back to basics can be used in most any situation where you’ve fallen down on what you had begun to believe was your goal. You can go back to basics with diet, exercise, sleep hygiene, cutting down on sugar, quitting smoking, or any other health-related resolution you may have made and failed to actualize once the year began.
Increase With Caution
Once your new “basic” plan is activated, you can make changes in that plan and begin to pick up steam, but be cautious in what you undertake, always keeping your goals reasonable, realistic and measurable.
If you decide, for instance, that you can now afford the time and money to join the gym, choose a gym and plan that work for you on every level (financially, commute-wise, hours of operation, etc). In the heady excitement of getting back on track, be careful not to repeat the mistake of New Years Eve and set yourself up for letting yourself down once again. Realistic and reasonable goals are the secret here, so keep that in mind as you expand and rewrite your game plan.
Every Day is New Years Day
Resolutions are just our way of using the New Year as a vehicle for setting goals and making their achievement a reality. While we’re often well-meaning on New Years Eve, the excitement of the New Year can cause our imaginations (and ambitions) to get ahead of our ability to meet that excitement when our feet hit the floor on New Years Day.
Taking this into consideration, remember that every day can be New Years Day, and every day—every moment—is an opportunity to start again, wipe the slate clean, make subtle adjustments to your plan, and decide once again what you can realistically “resolve” to do.
As always, be gentle, be consistent, be realistic, and most of all, be easy on yourself when you don’t measure up. After all, you can always start again tomorrow!
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