7 Proven Suggestions To Help You Succeed In Your New Year’s Resolution
To have a resolution or not to have a resolution… that is the question.
Is it that time for you? It’s the New Year and some folks are setting New Year’s resolutions; others are so sick of hearing of them they don’t even want to consider setting one. Or maybe these non-resolutioners are “over it” because they have been there, done that, and couldn’t stick to the change. Whatever position you take, there’s no doubt change is challenging.
One of the reasons hypnosis is so popular is because it catches the attention of those striving to change, and who have likely tried many other methods first. Yep, they typically only come to me as a last resort, when will power and nothing else has worked. Ya, I could take that personally, but I actually love this aspect of what I do. I get to hear all about the ups and downs of my client’s previous efforts, I learn a lot about the challenges involved in change, and I get to see the limitations of will power. Then, to the benefit of my clients, I can turn all this around in a sort of sneak attack on their subconscious. These clients’ minds are very ready for a change because they have already tried everything else. Combine that with highly effective suggestions and they are guided over and beyond the hump. Their change is significantly easier and seemingly miraculous.
But what if you want to tackle change on your own, without the benefit of hypnosis… here are a few things I have learned about change:
- You will be more likely to make permanent change if the motivation comes from you. Meaning you want to make the change because you believe it is in your best interest vs doing it for someone else or because you have been told to.
- Make small changes and don’t bite off more than you can chew. We can get so excited about making change that we set lofty goals, only to find it was too much to keep up with or attempt to implement.
- Change comes from deliberately decreasing a specific behavior while simultaneously increasing the frequency of the new behavior… both of these take effort and must be addressed.
- Make a commitment and stick to it, especially in the midst of stress. I recommend clients learn healthy coping skills to productively address stress, because life challenges will arise and tempt a person to revert back to their unhealthy habit.
- Be mindful as you enter into circumstances where you would have engaged in the old habit, think through and be ready to implement alternative choices.
- If you slip up and engage in the old behavior, don’t attack yourself and give up, take it as an opportunity to learn about yourself and your areas of weakness… this will help you be one step ahead of yourself and catch these potential obstacles as you move forward.
- Take it one day at a time… or one hour at a time. Along the way remind yourself of the positive reasons for making the change, be patient and believe in yourself.
With these 7 suggestions you can have the strength to make a healthy, positive change. So the question isn’t whether or not to have a New Year’s resolution, it is a question of which one to commit to.
