I’m going to try a new approach to new years resolutions this year! Last year, I resolved to clean my shower alcove more regularly and pay my bills on time. There is mould in the shower alcove and I have just had a second reminder about my Telstra bill. I am one of the 95% of people for whom New Years Resolutions fail!
Why do New Years resolutions fail? I think it is because we expect things to change overnight, where in reality, the only real thing to change between December and January, is the date! We’ve been doing things a certain way for at least a year and our brains are wired to do them that way. To expect major changes in behaviour between the 31st of December and the 1st of January is fairly unrealistic.
I am going to try and change my odds for 2011, by setting monthly resolutions. Instead of starting 2011 saying “I’m going to go to the gym 5 times a week, eat my 2 & 5 fruit and veg every day, drink 8 glasses of water a day and visit my great Aunt in the nursing home every Sunday!” I am going to start each month by looking at the important elements of my life and setting a realistic goal for each one. If one month, I don’t achieve one or more of the goals, I will be able to asses if I am setting the bar too high or perhaps not trying hard enough.
The areas that I have decided to set goals in are;
• Create
• Move
• Eat
• Connect
• Work
• Finances
Create: Making sure I spend quality time being creative. I let my creativity lapse for so many years because people told me it wouldn’t put food on my table, but I rediscovered it earlier this year and realised that it is food for my soul!
Move: Exercise is important. I have a gym membership, but this resolution won’t be limited to ‘serious exercise’, but also to things like bushwalking, dancing and hippy stuff like yoga!
Eat: Food is also important, I am going to try to set myself goals to try new (healthy) recipes, experiment with new fruits and vegetables and generally expand my gastronomic repertoire!
Connect: Making sure I spend meaningful time with special people. I want to write more letters, make more surprise phone calls, entertain people more at home and generally nurture my relationships with both my family and my friends.
Work: Ah, the thorn in my side. I want to make headway with work, either by finding new work or making my current work more meaningful. Doing courses, doing little experiments like my “Find one thing a day to like about work” and generally shifting my attitude.
Finances: Setting myself a monthly savings target, working out ways of earning money on the side, possibly through my creative pursuits. This will ultimately go towards my much anticipated and disappointingly postponed trip to England to see my dear friend Kate.
So my one new years resolution will be to post an update on how I am going with all of this on a monthly basis. Andy plays basketball on a Thursday, so I have I have written an appointment in my diary for the last Thursday of every month to sit down and work out my resolutions for the following month. Maybe I’ll take myself to a coffee shop to do it, or down to my local pub for a pint and a ponder! Hopefully by this time next year, I’ll be creatively fulfilled, have perfected the rumba, know how to bust out a mean artichoke casserole for my friends followed by pomegranate and persimmon crumble, be happy at work, whatever that may be and be cashed up en route to the old country!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment