To the resolute you

New Year – New Resolutions, that loses its newfound enthusiasm within the first few days of execution, isn’t it? Up until 2021 this is what had happened to me – I plan, I boast, I execute for a fortnight or so and my enthusiasm would dwindle. It just felt too much of an effort, too much of an expectation from myself, too much to be handled with my daily schedule.

One challenge and we pushback our resolves, consoling ourselves, it is okay to skip for a day or two and in no time, it becomes days and months, until our mind even stops reminding ourselves that we’d resolved on something. In this entire process, we fail to realize that we fall in our own eyes, and our subconscious affirms, ‘This girl cannot even do what she’d decided, then all the big goals and plans – how is she ever going to achieve?’

And year after year, sadly we continue with this pattern. How do we break from this, once and for all?

One huge shift that I did last year was to not aim for 365 days of resolve but just 30 days resolve and aim for something that is significantly small and achievable. For instance, my first month’s resolve was as tiny as reading a book for just 30 minutes a day, meditate for 11 minutes and sip one glass of warm water daily. I would then renew the goal on the 1st of next month. This way, it was easier to track and achieve what I plan.

Yet another prime shift was to not aim that seemed too overwhelmingly unachievable. I remember myself resolving to wake up at 4.30 am every day, well it sounded fancy and audacious. However, within few days my energy levels dropped and all I craved was to sleep the rest of the day. As one can imagine, this resolve remained just in papers.

Aim for things that might just seem subtle initially and yet it would give significant results if executed for a brief period. For instance, last month, I resolved to stop consuming tea altogether as I found myself getting too addicted to it causing poor gut health. Along with this, I aimed to add salad in at least one meal daily. Well, I have not missed even a day! Small shifts but I know for sure, it is a lifestyle change for me.

My Mahatria puts it this way, ‘Small beginnings with incremental improvements and sustained progress leads to humungous possibilities.’

This year let’s just start small and win and keep winning with our own subconscious. Well, you’d be delighted to meet a much confident, evolved version of you at the other end.