Making Your New Years Goals Stick.

By Jayde Austin

         Re-set, re-adjust, re-start, re-focus as many times as you need to.

With the new year, comes new resolutions. From quitting smoking, to being more physically active, or even eating to maximise your health/pleasure paradigm – whatever the focus we love hearing the goals people set – it shows that they want to continue enhancing their lives, and gives them something to focus on in the New Year.
 
In our experience, most goals we hear about will undoubtably have a positive impact on mental health, as people foresee themselves being in a happier space upon reaching their goals. It's quite surprising to know that a mere 20% of people actually accomplish what they set out to do… Not only do we hope this percentage increases; we also hope that you’re part of that group. We have written out some simple ways to help you continue moving forward to reach your set goals.

1. Write your resolution(s) down:
   
   If you haven’t already, writing your goals down and ensuring you’ll see them twice a day will help keep you remain focused. Maybe that means you’ll write your resolutions down on post-it notes and stick them to your bathroom mirror so you see them first thing in the morning, and again at night while you’re brushing your teeth. Keeping a journal that charts your journey can also be really useful. Keep it by your bed and write down any important realisations or dreams while your'e at it. Harbour Therapy Clinic's Art therapist, Marg Coutts runs journalling workshops if you'd like to explore this in greater depth. 
   
   
2. Develop a support network:
   
   Your nearest and dearest are often your biggest cheer squad. From family, to friends, to colleagues – talk to your inner circle about what you’ve planned to achieve in the new year and how they can help. Can they keep you accountable? Can they simply ask how you’re going or be an ear to talk to when you’re struggling? Sharing your goals with others not only impresses it more deeply in your mind, but allows you to achieve greater encouragement when working towards them.
   
   
3. Measure your success:
   
   Stay motivated and on track by measuring how far you’ve come each week. This will help you realise the positive impacts of your efforts and allow you to ‘start over’ when a new week comes around if you’ve come off track.
   
   
4. Reward your progress:
   
   Make sure you treat yourself to some kind of reward when you succeed – but be sure to make it something that’s enjoyable, not what you’ve been trying to avoid. For example, if you’re trying to quit smoking, don’t treat yourself with a cigarette, instead, do something else you enjoy – take a small weekend getaway, go to your favourite restaurant or buy yourself a congratulatory gift.
   
   
5. Treat setbacks as a learning experience rather than failing:
   
   If you slip off your healthy eating plan, don't make it to exercise or sneak a secret cigarette, it’s not the end of your goal – it’s an opportunity to learn, and set ‘prevention goals’. Look at what happened leading up to the setback: what situations make you slip? Can you avoid it next time? Try to reflect on the situation with your support network – maybe they have some ideas that you haven’t thought of on how you can move passed this and avoid it happening again. The biggest thing to do here is stop obsessing over a slight mishap and flip the ‘negative’ to a ‘positive’ – now you have prevention goals to keep you on track! Remember gentle self compassion is far more effective than allowing your inner critic to run rampant and drive you away from your goals. 
   
   
6. Yoga, Qigong, Mindfulness and Meditation:
   
   Use practical tools like Yoga, Mindfulness and Meditation to help calm the nervous system and strengthen your love of self and connection with others. You'll be able to gain greater self-awareness and focus on your intentions, helping you stick with goals and gain a more centred way of approaching them. Learn how you can utilise these practices in 2019 through our introductory courses by enquiring here. 

What goals did you set for 2019, and how are they going so far? We’d love to hear from you in the comments below.