Sticking to your New Year’s Resolution in 2020
Sticking to your New Year’s Resolutions in 2020
A common question we ask you each December is “are you healthier this December compared to last despite being a year older”?
At Mt Eden Chiropractic our mission is to empower our people. Over the years we have helped you set your own health goals. In our model, health and life is an inside out job. We ask you at our orientation workshop, what age do you want to live to, and what is the quality of life you want as you age? We have found if we work backwards with the end in mind this helps our patients come up with goals and strategies that are more easily defined. What’s interesting is if we look at the most common new year’s resolution set last year in 2019 according to Inc.com, five were related to health.
- Diet or eat healthier (71 percent)
- Exercise more (65 percent)
- Lose weight (54 percent)
- Save more and spend less (32 percent)
- Learn a new skill or hobby (26 percent)
- Quit smoking (21 percent)
- Read more (17 percent)
- Find another job (16 percent)
- Drink less alcohol (15 percent)
- Spend more time with family and friends (13 percent)
These are not considered smart goals so most likely are never achieved and usually end up being in people’s minds at the start of each year.
Here’s 5 processes Tony Robbins teaches that have been super helpful to me over the years in which may help you through the process of getting clear on those New Year’s Resolutions.
- Get clear on your WHY – first and foremost. If your resolution, it’s something you think you ‘really should do’ you can all but forget about completing it. Get clear on WHY this goal is important to you. What is the vision you have of your life? How will this make you feel when you get there?
- Write out PLAN. Break down big goals in to smaller – mini goals. We can tick these off more frequently acting as benchmarks and keeping us motivated by showing we are heading in the right direction. Write a short list of easy, attainable things to help towards your goal at the beginning of the week and tick them off as you go. Small daily accomplishments lead to big long term changes.
- Build momentum by being consistent with rituals.We are creatures of habit. Set the precedent for the day by making your bed, getting your joints moving (and waking your brain up), doing something challenging (I choose a two minute cold shower). This starts the day building momentum. Similarly, a routine at night to wind down from the day and write down three things you are grateful for. There are going to be times along the journey where you have less energy and motivation. By keeping up with the mini-rituals, you’ll still maintain some momentum for when it’s time to put the foot on the gas again
- Get involved with other people. We are social creatures. Talking about your goals to people you are close to helps keep you accountable. Join groups and share experiences with like-minded people. Not only will you be able to share your successes and challenges but also share past experiences and create a sense of community – all things necessary not only for progression but leading a happy and healthy life.
- Decrease stress / balance overall energy expenditure– As the saying goes – ‘you can’t pour from an empty cup’. So much of our days are spent reacting to our ‘outer world’. Many of us, especially in busy cities are chronically stressed. The stress response is designed to expend our energy and over time can affect our sleep, posture digestion, immunity and clarity of thought. Find something you enjoy to help put back ‘in’ to you on a regular basis – preferably daily. Effective things include mindfulness, breath work, meditation and of course regular Chiropractic care. Ask us for an updated Heart Rate Variabilty Scan (HRV) so we can help determine where you are at the start of the year.
Be kind to yourself, remember most people get off track because they get busy and other things get in the way of the goals they had planned at the start of the year. I find this most commonly once we hit Waitangi Day, schools go back and the cycle of business kicks in again.
Good luck with 2020 and all your resolutions, and if some tricky moments pop up, stick to your vision and think; are things on my way, or in my way.
Yours in health,
Dr. Simon
