Resolutions, when done well, can be great for upgrading your life. I prefer a yearly review and a renewed focus to have more of the things I love from one year to the next!
Hi there, it’s Elaine Gardner. I’m the founder of DesignYourHealthyLife.com. A lot of people are talking about New Year’s resolutions, but the statistics regarding how many people actually keep their New Year’s resolutions are really abysmal. Personally I’m not a fan because I believe most people are misguided about the way they make resolutions.
Take losing weight for example, or quitting smoking. Those are really great, incredible goals for your health, but the underlying issue that you’re aiming for (if you’re looking for those kinds of goals) is actually to be healthy. I’d love to see you prioritize your health and give yourself a whole lot more time than just a 30 day plan to quit smoking, for instance. Or just a resolution to quit smoking in 2018. That can involve several starts and stops, and ups and downs, and I think that makes people give up much too quickly.
And from a weight loss perspective (I’m using these as examples because I know they’re really common resolutions), a lot of people start diets where they’re eliminating calories and eating foods that they don’t really enjoy, and that’s not sustainable from a long term perspective. But if you cut out junk food from your life and start eating really healthy foods, and healthy foods that you love, then that’s a lot more sustainable. It may take a whole lot longer for you to figure out what you do like and to implement those things in your life. And your weight loss might be slow, which a lot of people will give up on, but when you do this over an extended period of time, your chances of achieving results are much greater. And you’ll get so many more benefits from it too because you’re improving your overall health that way.
So again, I’m not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions myself, but I think it’s more of the way that people traditionally make their resolutions. What I really love to do is review the year that’s ending and think about what was good and not so good about that year. I want to have more of the things that were really good about that year so I start planning to implement those things for the next coming year. So for 2017, I had some really great trips. We were able to go to Hawaii, which was something we had talked about doing for many, many years. It was such a wonderful trip.
I already have a couple trips planned for 2018; one is strictly personal and the other is a business trip. Also, my son is going to the Philippines for 9 months so we’re really hoping to visit him (if that’s feasible for him). He’s working while he’s there so we have to figure out if he can actually spend time with us. And once we know that, we’ll start planning other vacations as well. Hopefully we’ll take a big family vacation in October when my son comes home after being away for 9 months.
So I really like to focus on what was really good about this previous year and how I can have more of that in the coming year. And not just to review that on a yearly basis, but I like to do that on a daily basis as well. When I’m in bed at night and getting ready to go to sleep, a lot of times what’s running through my head is what was good about today. I want to be able to acknowledge and observe what’s good in my life on a daily basis. And if something wasn’t good that day, I consider if there’s something that I could have done differently or something that I can now do, after the fact, to make up for something that didn’t go well.
So what does all that have to do with health? Well, we have a tendency to think of health as just physical. Am I eating well? Did I get enough vegetables today? Am I exercising enough? But health is so much bigger than that. And your mental and emotional health is vitally important. It’s great to have a healthy body but you also want to love your life, be happy, and able to enjoy the things that you do. Enjoy your work, enjoy your downtime, have things to look forward to, whether that means staying home, visiting family, or like me – I love to travel and I want to see things – whatever that means for you.
Having those things to look forward to and get excited about releases chemicals in your body that change your physical health as well. So it’s not just about feeling good from a mental and emotional perspective. Those things affect you physically too. We have one body and the mental, emotional, spiritual, physical aspects all come together. It all works together and everything affects everything else.
So, as we’re ending 2017, I want to thank you for the time you’ve spent with me. It’s an honor to share my knowledge with you. I’m always here for you so if you need anything, please feel free to reach out. I’m so excited about the possibilities of 2018 and I hope you are too. As always, I want you to have the health that you need to live the life that you deserve. Talk to you soon.