Every January it’s the same conversation around New Year resolutions where we create a list with bunch of things to do on what we want to accomplish this year. Guess what those resolutions fall apart even before month ends. If you are one of them who sets a goal of going to gym three times a week and comes third week of Jan, couldn’t make it because of crazy schedules or cold weather or just feeling lazy, you are not alone. And to me, it really is not surprising at all.
When we talk about resolutions we basically write down bunch of things which puts our minds into a box. For a human being to be able to feel accomplished we just need to check those boxes in our list. If for some reason you can not manage to stick to the list for few weeks, you hop off that resolution vagon completely. Because it is super structured within that box, there is no way of feeling accomplished unless you make it happen. Yeah you can say that “isn’t that the point?”
How about setting “intensions” instead of a resolution list? Instead of telling yourself about going to gym three times a week, making your life healthier by smarter decisions? Or moving more? Does that sound not too sharp?
Lets see. When you have it set up like that in your mind, maybe you will end up walking those four blocks from your meeting vs taking a cab, or taking the stairs vs the escalator when you get off the E train on the 5th and 54rd (yeah the steepest metro stairs ever). Maybe you will replace the fries next to your dish with veggies. You see my point.
With small wins like that will motivate you vs creating demotivation since you are not following a super prescribed list but instead you use your creativity. Which is another win;) WIN & WIN:)
With that minset, this year, I set an intention of “learning something new” and didn’t limit myself what it could be. Basically I’m letting my soul, my mind and my body to decide. It can be anything where I see a challenge or when I get curious about or what makes me excited.
And I recently found one thing I wanna learn : The science behind nutrition. Does not necessarily mean that I will end up being a nutritionist but hey you never know. I just wanna learn it for myself since I am extremely curious about what goes into my body and how it reacts. I just wanna understand how my metabolism operates and how I can take care of my body better. Anything I am doing wrong now? Do I really know my body? Etc etc… And the list goes on & on….
I’m excited! As usual:)
Ayca