“Losing weight”, “eating less junk food” and “dieting” are top of the list for New Year’s, but many experts say that these goals may raise unrealistic expectations and cause you to fail before February. The New Year often brings a sense of renewal and inspires many to set goals, intentions or resolutions. There are many opinions about the effectiveness of New Year’s resolutions.
The most common types of resolutions are financial or health / fitness goals. There is nothing demoralizing for people than failing again to achieve their health goals. It’s easy to blame yourself, but you may not be. It could be your goal. Either it is unrealistic or you try to do too much too soon.
Set positive goals rather than negative goals
Identify what changes you want to make and create a goal based on what you want to do rather than what you don’t want to do. For example: “I will find new and interesting ways to cook vegetables.” and “I want to move my body the way I like it most days of the week.”
Prepare logistically
After you have set your positive goal, you want to identify logistics to achieve it. If you want to have breakfast every morning, you need to find some essential, fun, balanced (and possibly easy) ideas and have the ingredients ready. This means that you have to create a shopping list and shop regularly. You will probably have to get up a little earlier to take the time to prepare breakfast. You may also want to go to bed earlier. And so on.
Focus on few goals at a time
With all the logistics required to achieve your positive goal, it is advisable to set only one or two goals at a time to avoid being overwhelmed and burned out. Be gentle with yourself; you don’t have to do everything now.
Make sure your goals are achievable
For example, do you really want to avoid sugar for the rest of your life? Are you sure you want to run a marathon? Are you sure you want to start a diet or rigid fitness routine? It’s okay if the answer is no. Make sure your goal setting process is personal for you.