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[st_row div_padding_bottom=”40″ id_wrapper=”elm_5a7342b4a2531″ ][st_column span=”span12″][st_image image_file=”https://aspirecounselling.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/new-year-goals-resolutions-2019.jpg” image_size_wrapper=”” image_size=”full” image_alignment=”center” m_div_margin_top=”20″ m_div_margin_bottom=”20″ m_image_alignment=”center” id_wrapper=”image_ce04cc8f6ee6d601671b9f06f00eb741″ ][/st_image][/st_column][/st_row][st_row ][st_column][st_text ]Another year is here, 2018 and everything that happened in it is behind us now Maybe you’ve already made your 2019 New Years resolutions like so many do at this time of the year. Or maybe you are going resolution free, which is a perfectly acceptable thing to do. Either way, you will probably be hoping to have the best year you can for yourself and your loved ones and it would be helpful to set a few goals. You might want to set goals related to learning new things or doing something you’ve always wanted to do. You can also set goals related to changing your behaviour, dropping a bad habit or achieving something related to how you live our life or how you feel. Another year is here, 2018 and everything that happened in it is behind us now Maybe you’ve already made your 2019 New Years resolutions like so many do at this time of the year. Or maybe you are going resolution free, which is a perfectly acceptable thing to do. Either way, you will probably be hoping to have the best year you can for yourself and your loved ones and it would be helpful to set a few goals. You might want to set goals related to learning new things or doing something you’ve always wanted to do. You can also set goals related to changing your behaviour, dropping a bad habit or achieving something related to how you live our life or how you feel. Whatever you decide to do this coming year and whenever you decide to do it, here are some ideas that might help you achieve real progress in your life:
Keep your goals realistic
Don’t expect to change anything and everything in one go. Sometimes it is better to do things in small steps. If you want to achieve something big, decide what your end goal might be and then work out a set of small steps to help you get there one step at a time. Try not to take on too many things at once, achieving one goal at a time can often be the best way to make progress. Once you’ve made good progress on one, you can look into starting another.
Set positive goals
It’s easier to set and achieve a positive goal for yourself compared to one that focuses solely on depriving yourself of something such as stopping eating certain foods or avoiding alcohol. This is especially true for people who are affected by depression. A more achievable goal may be to get fitter than you are already. With a positive goal like this, improving your nutrition and hydration levels will be good positive steps. It’s also an achievable goal as you will be relatively successful even if you get a little bit fitter than you are today. With a goal like this, you are also giving yourself the option to get a lot fitter than you are today. You’ll show yourself that you can make progress and move forward. Did you know that even a little exercise a few times a week can have a significant benefit on mental health?
Create a plan and check your progress against it
Remember to break up your goal into a set of smaller achievable steps. Put those into a plan that includes a realistic timeframe for achieving those steps. Be conservative, don’t have too high an expectation of yourself in terms of how much you’ll do and how quickly you can do it. Build some extra time in your plan to allow you to repeat steps or take longer over some if necessary. Stagger the steps, don’t try and do everything at once. Put your plan where you’ll see it often. You might want to print it out and stick it on the wall or on the fridge door. Tick off your progress and update the timeline if needed. There’s nothing wrong with an adjustment here or there. You might even find it useful to put your plan on your phone or tablet. There are some great project/task management tools that you can use. Check out Trello, Asana and Monday.com
Share your plans with someone else – get support from family and friends
There’s nothing better than a bit of moral support from your friends, family or colleagues. Share with others what you are hoping to achieve. It can be useful to tell them what’s behind your goal and why its important to you.
Getting expert help might increase your chances of achieving your goals
None of us is super-human and the way you are today is the product of many years of habit, neglect, or a lack of focus. When you set goals for yourself that include tasks such as getting fit, losing weight, being less angry, anxious or depressed you might also benefit from a little professional help. Asking for help is something that many of us find difficult, but it is often a critical step toward making progress. This can be especially true when trying to achieve significant goals or break deep-seated habits. Enlisting a professional to join your on your journey gets you both the benefits of their experience and gets you a cheerleader. Remember that although you should always be accountable for achieving your own goals, it can be good to have a professional help empower you. A professional counsellor can empower you toward achieving your goals by helping you see them in an appropriate context and help you to believe in your abilities. A counsellor can also help you embrace change in your life as well as deal with any negativity that you may be feeling.
Changing behaviours in a group can sometimes be easier
Shared experiences can be powerful and motivating. If you have friends with a similar interest or can find a group of people interested in a similar outcome you might be able to help each. If you don’t know anyone with similar goals, try looking for groups online. Websites like eventbrite.com, meetup.com and others list meetings and events that might help you. It can be a great way to make friends and to find people on a journey similar to your own. Even if you are looking to improve how you feel in the coming year, you can find groups related to that through a search online. You could, for instance, try searching on google for “support group depression”. You might be surprised at the free support that you can find available
Don’t limit yourself to January
Achieving goals or changing behaviour is not just something you can instantly do on January 1st and you shouldn’t expect instant success. Few could realistically do that. There’s no right or wrong point in a year to change your behaviour or work on your goals and dreams.
Expect good days and bad days – change is a process
Don’t expect that everything will happen perfectly, you’ll have successes and failures. If its a habit that you are trying to change it will have been formed over many years and be the product of long-standing habits. However, if you keep at it you should start to notice that the number of failures reduces over time. In many ways it can be a bit like learning a sport such as golf – you might not necessarily start playing that much better on your best shots, but you’ll start playing “less bad” on your bad shots and overall that’ll lead to a huge improvement in your game. Progress takes time.
Empowering you to achieve your goals
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