The New Rules for New Year’s Resolutions – A Santé Lakeside Fitness

Shared from Greatist.com BY GIULIANA HAZELWOOD

It’s 2018 and the resolution game has changed. Or rather, the rules have changed: It’s the mental game that matters now, more so than a specific goal or outcome. Follow these effective strategies for shifting your mindset in order to achieve mega success in the new year.

Get to Know Your Brain

Understanding the way the brain works is critical when it comes to achieving goals. Why? Because many (if not most) of the obstacles getting in the way of goals are merely perceived, suggests Garret Kramer, sports psychologist and author of Stillpower: Excellence with Ease in Sports and Life. What this means is that our minds create judgments, negative thoughts, and obstacles to goal achievement and that these obstacles likely aren’t based in physical reality.

When we wrap our heads around the idea that thoughts exist because of what’s going on in the brain and not what’s going on in the world around us, then we free up energy in the brain and body by allowing those perceived obstacles to have less signiﬁcance in our minds.

So how can we overcome the inﬂuence of our own brains? It all comes down to mindfulness. Two of the best strategies for staying present and separating thoughts from reality are writing and meditation. Make it a habit to jot down how you’re feeling each day, times when you lose your cool, and moments when you slip up on a resolution. Compare those feelings to the events of the day and you’ll see there’s usually not a huge correlation between what happens and how you feel. Similarly, even ﬁve or ten minutes a day of mindfulness meditation can help us practice letting thoughts “ﬂoat by” without judging them or perceiving them as obstacles. When we master letting go of our thoughts, they will no longer have the power to block us from achieving our goals.

Learn How to Set Goals

Though studies show it takes approximately 66 days to form a new habit, it might not be that simple. There are a lot of variables involved in new habit formation, including individual character traits, the type of habit being formed, and the amount of logistics or dedication required to make a change. In other words, there is no hard-and-fast magic number for achieving new goals. This means that establishing your own schedule is key to defining your own success.