New Years Resolutions — a new

New Years Resolutions — a new perspective

A few suggestions to make your New Year’s Resolutions more achievable and sustainable. Making you realise you are perfect exactly as you are but a few easy ways to make you feel that way in 2015.

New Years Resolutions — a new

Every year people spend ages looking back and reflecting on their lives, and usually while feeling fat, unfit and unfulfilled. The new year seems to provide everyone with an unkind mirror, and gyms the world over are clapping their hands in joy and signing up new members faster than the words “new year’s resolution” leave our mouths.

The most popular resolutions for most people:

  • Get fit
  • Diet or eat healthier
  • Drink less
  • Save more
  • Travel more
  • Quit smoking
  • Get rid of the debt
  • Learn a new skill
  • Learn a new language
  • Study something

But come February, all these resolutions have most commonly been abandoned as life marches on despite your best laid plans. So here are a few tips on how to make achievable goals and stick to them.

Diet and exercise

Take stock of what your current food intake is. There are some great free apps that allow users to scan the bar codes of the food they eat and establish what sugars, fats, proteins, carbs and calories they are consuming. It’s a great tool to give someone an honest overview of what the current “normal” is. It can be frustrating, but it can also be incredibly rewarding.

You can also use an app to set easily achievable goals without expensive annual gym memberships. But if the gym is something you are keen to try, make sure you have a gym buddy –preferably one that will make you feel horrible if you stand them up, but also one that will have fun with you when you go. Guilt is a great motivator to go run on a treadmill, but if you can’t enjoy it while you are there you won’t carry on doing it.

Alcohol

Be aware of what you are drinking, as alcohol units vary by which drink you prefer. It may be shocking to know that three single shot gin and tonics carry the same alcohol units as a single large glass of wine.  The guide for woman’s consumption every day is between 2-3 units while for men its is between 3-4. So that can be a medium glass of wine or a pint, or three gin and tonics each.

Smoking

Quitting smoking is stressful and incredibly difficult. But ultimately it will certainly be better for you. Consult your GP as to the best way forward to do this because each person is different and working with your health care professional is the most effective way forward.

If you are choosing not to quit but realise that it is not healthy for you any more, why not try smoking one cigarette less a day than you did on the 31st December? If at the end of the year you were on 30 a day, by the end of January try drop that to 20, then drop further to 15 by the end of February, and gradually reduce it more and more until you are ready to stop.

Debt and saving

Every year, we all try to save more. The best and easiest way to do this is to setup a separate bank account without card access, which makes it more difficult for you to get the money out.  Then deposit small amounts into the new bank account there each time you can. If you are paid weekly, try putting £20 a week into the account. That is over £1000 in a year. Even if you are repaying debts, try and keep saving at the same time. It’s important to have a rainy day fund.

With regards to debt, remember missing payments or amending the payment terms with your loan provider can affect your credit score, so discuss the options open to you with your loan provider.

Learning a new skill

With busy lives and hectic work schedules sometimes new commitments are difficult to maintain, but the new year often provides great opportunity to form new habits. There are useful online tools to find local groups or classes in your area.

Looking forward to 2015, take a moment to reflect on what you did right. Look at the great times you had. Learn from those difficult life lessons you have had and move forward. Stop clinging to those bad relationships that bring you no joy and let go of the past, no matter how difficult. You can’t have new things come into your life when you have the bad cluttering up your emotional space. Clear up that Facebook wall, and delete any annoying people. Be excited for a new future. It is your life and you are answerable only to yourself, so live your life as best you can. If you don’t, who is going to?