So how is your New Year resolution coming along? Try visualising success to improve your chances.

Did you make a New Year resolution on December 31st or January 1st?

Did you decide to lose weight, stop smoking, get fit, give up alcohol for January, work smarter, start a new business, take up a new hobby, spend more time with the family, be more positive or something completely different?

action, resolution, visualisation
Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it.’
Johan Goethe (1749 – 1832)

Anyway whatever it was, now that we are a few days into 2014, how is it going? I hope it is going well for you and that you are sticking to your plan.

Sometimes however ‘life’ or something gets in the way and pushes you off course, especially when you are back at work, university or school or even when the family routine restarts.  Chances are this has happened before and as a result you haven’t achieved your goals. I know, because it has happened to me.

According to some US statistics only 8% of those who set themselves one or more resolutions actually manage to achieve their goal. (You can read them in more detail here: http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-years-resolution-statistics/).

If you find that you are struggling to keep to your resolution there are some techniques and ideas you might like to try in order to give yourself a better chance of succeeding.

Firstly if you have a long list, cut it down to one or two goals and try to break each goal down into smaller more achievable components. By doing this you give yourself the ability to focus and also to see yourself taking positive steps towards your target. Try to make the goals specific, measurable, timely and tied to specific actions so that you can measure where you are and know exactly what you are going to do to keep moving forward.

You might want to share your goals with friends or family to enlist their support. You could consider blogging about your progress to aid motivation and provide you with a record of how you have been getting on, complete with the challenges as well as the highlights.

It is also important to remember that the route to a goal is rarely smooth and problem free, so why not give your self a bit of what I call ‘wiggle room’? In other words do not be too hard on yourself if you find that you have wavered from the path. It is not the end of the world and it certainly doesn’t mean that you are doomed to fail. You can start again.

There are also ways you can help yourself by using the power of your own mind. For example you could use self hypnosis or the visualisation elements of Goal Directed Hypnotherapy I mentioned in my previous blog. There are some guidelines for self hypnosis available from the Downloads section of my website here: http://www.teleognosis.co.uk/free-downloads/.

The visualisation elements involve taking perhaps 10 to 15 minutes once a day to be quiet and relaxed and then to see yourself as you will be once you have succeeded in achieving your goal, complete with the sights, sounds, smells and most importantly the feelings of pride, delight and pleasure which accompany the experience. You can also alternate this with visualising yourself performing the tasks which are essential to you meeting your objectives.

As an example if you have a goal to reduce your weight, set yourself a number of specific small targets for weight loss – perhaps 4kg per month, rather than a big reduction over a long period which may seem unobtainable. Then you can use goal visualisation to experience how you will be after say a month or two, see how much healthier and relaxed you look and what new, smaller sized, clothes you are wearing, notice how much fitter you are and how pleased you feel with yourself. You can use the task visualisation to see yourself enjoying smaller portions of healthier food and exercising more regularly, for example.

One tip for the visualisations is to make them as vivid, colourful and vibrant as you can so use your imagination and creativity to help yourself.

If you consistently show your inner mind what you want (rather than what you do not want) and what tasks you are undertaking to get what you want, it will naturally start to work with you to help you achieve your goals.

Give it a go…. you have everything to gain!

 

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