New year, new resolutions - but these proverbial good intentions are usually anything but effective. Here you can find out how to avoid the stumbling block of good resolutions and still achieve success.
Good intentions create excessive demands
In criminal law, acts committed with intent are regarded as aggravating punishment. It is precisely this dynamic that characterizes New Year's resolutions, because you end up punishing yourself. Your noble intentions put you under pressure and, as everyone knows, people don't function particularly well in stressful situations. If you remember the last two episodes, which dealt with goal setting, you already have a good basis for taking a different, better approach to your New Year's resolutions.
Intentions arise from past failures
Sometimes I can't help but be amazed when I see the huge changes in work, family and health that need to be tackled at the beginning of the year or on another important day. The things that need to be changed as soon as possible are the result of a past oversight. The overload is already integrated into the speedy processing. If you take on too much out of a guilty conscience, you shouldn't be surprised if your resolutions quickly collapse like a house of cards.
But when the resolutions are gone, what do you use to fulfill your wishes? Imagine the captain of an ocean liner that is dramatically off course. He decides to change course abruptly, but the helmsman is not impressed. The captain intervenes himself and suddenly, unlike the small frigate on which he previously served, nothing works at all. Shortly afterwards, all the passengers have to disembark and be evacuated.
Not with your head through the wall
This is exactly how most people feel when their good intentions fail. While everything works out on a small scale, the projects fail on the big stage. At best, we can grit our teeth for a moment, but our usual tactics fail with such mammoth projects. Without care and sensitivity, shipwreck is imminent. But what could the captain have done differently? Instead of going through the wall with his head, he could have sought feedback from the machinists and then carefully planned every step. After all, on thin ice, no one sets off in a sprint, but grabs their skates and only picks up speed once a certain level of basic safety has been achieved.
Discipline is the lived desire for change
How can you reach your goal without resolutions?
- 1. choose the area in which you want to make the biggest changes. Here are your priorities.
- 2. choose something that you have good reasons for and that doesn't put pressure on you - for example, better stamina or a better body feeling.
- 3. divide your goal into small steps, each of which you can easily manage.
- 4. create incentives to have fun working on your change.
- 5. realize that a mini-success is always better than a step backwards.
- 6. go slowly and gradually increase your pace. Take pleasure in stage successes.
In concrete terms, this means that you don't have to run to the gym every day if you were totally unathletic. One hour a week is enough at first. You can slowly increase the frequency. If you want to give up meat, don't say goodbye to animal-based food straight away, but try vegetarian recipes first. Create new, positive habits with discipline and remember: discipline is not a compulsion, but a lived desire for change! Every day is as good as the next. Only one is better and that is today! I look forward to reading what you think about good resolutions and how they work for you in the comments.
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