Need help with your new year’s resolution?
If you haven’t made a resolution before, or you make them knowing that you’re unlikely to follow through, we can help you make this year a success!
Making change is challenging: we don’t like the unknown, we are not really inclined to ‘risk’ our comfort in making change and sometimes we just don’t know where and how to start.
There’s a good chance your resolution will involve changing behaviour – maybe it’s getting up earlier to exercise, resisting sweet treats, giving up cigarettes or starting some savings (changing your spending behaviour). Sometimes, the longer you’ve had the behaviour, the more challenging it can be to change it – but it can be done with the right planning and support.
Here are some tips to increase your success:
- Make a plan. Think about the things which are likely to stop your success and pre-plan what you’ll do – maybe at summer parties you can take a fancy kombucha instead of wine or have a water bottle next to the door where you normally drop keys and grab smokes.
- One of the most successful ways to change behaviour is a reward system. Forget punishment: time and again, studies show that punishment is far less effective in both the short term and the long term. So, think about the things you can do to reward yourself. They don’t have to be extravagant; they just have to remind you to congratulate yourself and keep going (and the best ones are often free!).
- If you’re a visual person, use that strength: try having a list or chart on the fridge so you can see your successes as they accumulate. If you’re a tactile learner, try adding ribbons or beads to a string, or adding pieces to a puzzle/ build so you can see and touch your success. If you’re auditory, have a favourite song ready to play at the end of a good week or even a little soundbite on your phone for each daily success.
- Perhaps the most important thing to remember is to be forgiving and patient with yourself. If you are one of those people who can make a decision and stick to it the first time around, that is fantastic – but the vast majority of us have failures as well as success. Don’t give up! Dust yourself off, work out why you did (or didn’t do) something and set a date to start again. Everything takes practice – even change.
Whatever it is you are committed to achieving with your resolution, the team at Soothing Minds have the right experience to support and motivate you – and we’d love to help you be successful!
