Make a fresh start

I’m sure by now you would have been bombarded with New Year messages and you will continue to receive such messages at least for another week or so. Is it really the other’s wishes that matter or your own wishes?

Intentions

Past practise dictates that once in every 365 days, you should try to kick bad habits and start life anew. What kind of New Year resolutions did you make for yourself for 2013? You resolve to improve every year on a day like yesterday.

It almost seems like we can start all over, finally become the successful, wonderful, productive, healthy, happy person we've always wanted to be. However, the problem with the start of a new year is that most good intentions are often derailed within a few days or weeks.

Change of attitude

The enthusiasm to make changes, tends to fade once we realise we can't change everything overnight or that it takes much effort to realise them. If you want to make lasting changes, there are three things you can do to make your resolutions work all year long: Correct your attitude, embrace the right lifestyle and be committed to achieving the resolution.

Discomfort

Why do people abandon their resolutions halfway? One reason is that we become discouraged when results don't come quickly enough or easily, or when we find that we are not happier because of them.

Behavioural change requires sustained effort and commitment. It is also typically accompanied by physical and mental discomfort. For example, reducing food intake, working or studying longer hours and less sleep from a level to which you have become accustomed to.

Being a successful man

What does this mean? How do you measure this? Resolutions also fail because they are vague and impossible to measure. One could resolve to be a nicer person, but what does that mean? How would anyone know when and whether that goal had been reached? A better resolution would be to pay a compliment to one person each day.

Make a goal that can be reached in a year. This guideline is especially important for gifted children, who tend to have quite lofty goals, often beyond what they could achieve in one year. Of course, if a child goes beyond a goal in less than one year, that's fine. The idea is just to make sure the goal set is not impossible to reach.

Keep track

Writing down the resolution and the plans to make it happen is important because it helps you remain focused and will serve as a reminder of the resolution. It also makes the plan more formal, not just a passing thought on New Year's Day. Creating a plan and writing it down can help you understand how to set goals and find ways to reach them.

Find alternatives to a behaviour that you want to change, and make it part of your resolution plan. You may wish to quit night clubbing but you have been doing it to relax yourself or be with friends? What other forms of relaxation are available to you?

Look at the alternatives and choose the ones that have more positives and not activities that have more negatives than positives. Above all, aim at things that are truly important to you, not what you think you ought to do or what others expect of you.

After all it’s your life, your vision, your goal, your effort and your success that’s primary.

It’s not being selfish but accepting the reality that if you fail you cannot help others.

If you think I can be of help to you; catch me through [email protected]. I will be more than willing to help young ones.