After the Christmas season’s excitement and bustle, it is natural to feel a little down at this time of the year. January is the month of cold weather and dark mornings, it’s important to understand that this is normal. Be kind to yourself, get some daylight, exercise, good food, enough sleep, and avoid unrealistic New Year’s resolutions!
1. Instead of drinking less, try Dry January
When writing New Year’s Resolutions, using words such as ‘less’ and ‘more’ is easy. Generally, people are goal-orientated, so it becomes important to establish a clear start and end to these challenges. Dry January can be a great challenge to start the New Year with, and by cutting something out entirely for an achievable amount of time we can complete the goal, and from there it will be easier to cut down in the long run.
2. Replace ‘Lose Weight’ with ‘Make Healthier Choices’
Embrace the opportunity of a fresh year as a chance for a renewed beginning. Avoid the pitfalls of setting yourself up for failure with overly ambitious resolutions such as “lose weight” and “exercise more.” Instead, concentrate on cultivating healthy habits and establishing realistic, incremental goals that can be progressively enhanced as time unfolds.
3. Finding love might be the end goal, but why not start by simply socializing a little more?
The goal to ‘find love’ requires another person to be involved in your goal. You can only control your own goals and aspirations, so make smaller goals that all feed into this larger goal. Becoming a more social person can be tough sometimes, so simply saying yes to a plan that you might usually turn down, or choosing to engage in conversations more can be a great start.
4. If travelling more is a big goal, aim to start a travel fund first
Starting a travel fund by saving up loose change can be a realistic way to achieve travelling more. Another way of doing this is by rounding up your spending. Certain banks will round up all your spending to the nearest pound, and collect it as a form of saving. You might not get to the Maldives this year, but keep the unconscious saving going and you might be able to go further than you thought!
5. Setting the goal to ‘be happy’ might achieve the opposite quicker than you’d expect
It’s acceptable to acknowledge a spectrum of emotions, even those that may not be overwhelmingly positive. Branding certain emotions as negative or forbidden can ultimately prove counterproductive in the grand scheme of things.
