How Can We Make Them Stick?
Where did you ring in the New Year? Was it on a sandy beach, at home cozy by a fire, toasting champagne in Paris or in bed sick with a cold? Countless people toast to a New Year with a wave of celebration from Austrailia back to North America. Annually, individuals reckon with themselves and join forces with others to adopt new habits, and bring in the new whilst kicking out the "old".
Where did this idea of making resolutions start? In a quick review of sources, since 2000 BC, Babylonians would hold festivals and two points in the year: spring and fall equinox. Historically, they would pay of debts and return borrowed goods. Fast forward a few centuries, when the Romans reformed the calendar, January 1st became the day of new beginnings. This was in honour of Janus.
Symbols of New Years are everywhere - from the sale of themed items, to the need for a new outfit and ensuring you have scheduled an unforgettable night with friends, family, and hopefully, a midnight kiss.
We call ourselves, out of tradition, to make changes in the New Year. Most of them are, in fact, self changes or behavioural changes. I am going to share some alternatives to the ever daunting and rarely achieved New Year's Resolution.
4 ways to help make 'em stick!
1. Yearly Review - more exciting than it sounds!
Start by celebrating the past year. 2012 was amazing for me - and I am sure it was full of memories, both positive and negative that have informed how you might chose to live out 2013.
Why not try a Year in Review: From Get Busy Living: Your Year in Review:
My Tip: Find a beautiful journal and keep it all your years in review in one spot. Reflect each year on your highs, lessons, and things that you are grateful for.
2. Changing the Language in your resolutions making:
We can often say things like: I will not going to each junk food this year. I will not be mean to my kids.
In changing how we construct these ideas, we change how we approach the situation or goal. Peter Gasca shares more about this in his 5 Anti-Resolutions for 2013 Try reading more this year --- a reverse to: I have to watch less TV.
3. Picking a Theme Rather than Goals.
This is my personal favourite. In the past my theme has been to Live Boldy. I picked up the idea when I started to purchase a certain line of agendas. They each had wonderful quotes on them which help me to keep focused for that year, instead of drifting away from my silly lists of goals, and behaviour changes.
4. 1 Word and 365 Challenges
365 - take a photo, try something new or capture what you do each day. You can do this in a journal, by opening a photo account like instagram or flickr so that your photos are housed off of your phone (in case you misplace it). There are so many variations of this - make your own, or find something online to inspire you!
Here are my final picks. One word & 365 challenges. Below is a video that tells you more about how to incorporate the idea of having one word for an entire year. Much like the quote or theme for your year, you just pick one word to live out, through and with for the year to come. There are organizations that walk you through the process, you can find it in this video. I haven't used a company before, and I am not sure you have to. This guy does a great job of sharing the idea in more detail.
Share with us in the comment box what you do - or feel free to find us on Facebook and start a convo there!
Happy New Year - from mygapyear!
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