In Case You Don't Have Enough New Year's Resolutions...

It’s pretty much a given that this year (despite your failure to do so last year), you resolve to get in shape, lose weight, eat healthier, blah blah blah.  It’s interesting to hear so much emphasis on a resolve to look better, and you hear it literally everywhere you go.  It’s time to get over these cliché goals and take a deeper look at your life.  What are the things that cause you to avoid accomplishing said resolutions?  Usually it has nothing to do with the simplicity of calorie counting and working out for 2½ hours a day.  Here are some new 2K12 resolutions to try:

• Pick a new topic to learn about—something you’re interested in but unfamiliar with.  Read the books, do the research, and be intrigued (unless you get bored, in which case, new topic).  Some people won’t ever learn what they love in life unless they keep on exploring.  And let’s be serious…it never hurts to get smarter.
• Spend more time with people who uplift you.  Isn’t life too short not to?
• Quit a bad habit.  We’ve all got them and we all know it, it is simply a matter of will.  A great sense of accomplishment comes from doing something that truly makes you a better person.
• Start to think about getting a pet (so the idea can manifest in due time).
• Shoot for a promotion…if you keep putting it off, it’ll never happen.  If you hate your job and don’t even want a promotion, start networking and apply for new jobs.
• Be nicer to yourself!  It’s almost impossible not to be your own worst critic, but if you keep doing it, it’s going to hold you back in life.  Forgive yourself, accept yourself, and appreciate yourself for the many things everyone else appreciates you for.  This is the first and foremost step to self improvement, and it requires practice and patience.  Breathe more, judge less, and if you start doing yoga you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.

A lot of times when you start to sort out the core factors in your life that either cause or prevent happiness, everything else falls into place.  And a lot of times, it is our own unhappiness that prevents us from achieving our more superficial goals, which are really just a secondary response to the deeper issues.  Think about the bigger picture, and what you can change in order to make it ideal.  Become happier in your normal life, and who knows...you might drop 10 lbs. without even noticing.

XO,

E