It is a custom in some households to decide upon a New Year's Resolution for the coming year. Just as customary is the breaking of these promises to ourselves, year after year. The most popular resolutions are to quit smoking, drinking or using fowl language, sticking to a budget, and living a healthier lifestyle.
One of the reasons resolutions fail is because we tend to expect change to become apparent immediately. If we don't experience the new life we've envisioned, we give up and decide that this life is impossible for us to lead. Depending on our choice of change, we must first take a look at how long we have been living our current lifestyle. Did we take up smoking at a young age? Have we always drowned our sorrows in debt? When did we first notice all this extra weight?
There are a number of psychological and physiological tactics to promote change. A favorite of mine is known as The Dickens Pattern. It requires some visualization. We all probably watched some version of Charles Dickens' classic story of Ebenezer Scrooge just a few weeks ago. This is the basis of this visualization technique. Close your eyes and take yourself back to 5 years ago. What did you look like? Where did you work? How old were you? What size did you wear? Remember what you looked like when you went out in public 5 years ago. What types of foods were you eating? What types of outings did you enjoy? What types of outings did you miss out on and why? Now bring yourself into today.
After living 5 years that way, what do you look like, now? Are you going places more or less often than before? Are you still eating the same things you've been eating for the last 5 years? How is your health? Do you suffer from illnesses you haven't suffered before? Do you have physical limitations now as opposed to back then? How do you feel about yourself today? Now take yourself 5 years into your future, if you change nothing. 5 more years of eating the same, moving the same and living life the same.
What do you look like? How old are you in 5 years? How's your health? What do you enjoy after living the same way for 10 years? Now, open your eyes and realize that you are 5 years away from that. You have a new chance at life. What if you did make the changes you want so much to make. Now put yourself 5 years from now, having made those changes. What size do you wear? How great do you feel every day? What do you enjoy eating? Where do you go? Who do you see? How old are you ? How old do you feel? This can be your next 5 years and beyond.
Decide to make a positive change in your life. Then, don't turn back. Only move forward. 2008 is your year of success.
