I can remember a time in my younger life when I made these ridiculous, grandiose New Year’s resolutions. At the time I thought that if I said something out loud that it would just miraculously come true. What I failed to recognize is that you can’t achieve something on will power alone.
Will power is a great quality to have, but you need so much more than that to make things happen. Through the years, I came to understand that when you have a goal or a dream, you have to have a very deep emotional purpose behind it. For example: You want to lose weight. It’s not enough to just say you want to weigh 130 pounds. You need an emotional conviction behind that goal. Example: I want to lose weight so that I can play soccer with my kids, or go on roller coasters with them. Maybe it’s I want to be around for my grandchildren or I want to qualify for the Boston Marathon. It could be something more shallow like, I want to feel sexy around my husband, or wear a bikini on my 50th birthday.
In the past, if I set out to achieve something without this emotional conviction, I failed… every single time. Will power will only takes you so far. Just saying you want to live a healthy life isn’t enough either. You have to get in touch with how you FEEL. How does it FEEL when you fit in a pair of cute jeans? How does it FEEL when your husband drools at the sight of you? How would it FEEL to cross the finish line at Boston?
If you don’t put a feeling with your goal or dream, it makes it really challenging to get through the very difficult moments that are guaranteed to happen along the way. The moments when you are asking yourself, “why am I doing this?” If you don’t remember why you’re doing it in the first place, you are very likely to give up.
The other thing we do wrong when making resolutions (I know from making this mistake myself), is that we set a goal so large that it’s almost impossible or unhealthy to achieve. Starting with small changes ensures our success and prevents us from feeling overwhelmed. I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to qualify for Boston, and every time I crossed the finish line of a qualifying race, I was not even close to my goal. I was so defeated and wanted to give up. It was crushing my self-confidence. When I broke it down into smaller goals, lowered my expectations of myself, that’s when I qualified.
This year I am not setting resolutions, but rather having things in mind that I’d like to improve upon. I always start by writing things down in my journal.
In 2015–
- I want to spend more time introducing my children to running.
- I want to learn how to manage my stress better.
- I want to rekindle my love of running.
- I want to be more organized in my home and in life.
- I want to run a 10K with my husband.
- I want to do strength and core on a more regular basis.
- I want my sleep to improve.
- I want to save more money.
- I want to write more from my heart.
All of these things are not resolutions, but rather areas in my life that I feel that I could improve. Identifying the things you’d like to advance in, or even establishing realistic dreams, is like knowing what part of the world you’d like to travel. And, once you have a destination, you can unfold a map and really start planning your journey. Writing things down is helpful because you can then break it down into monthly, weekly, and daily tasks.
Saving more money means shopping at places that offer great deals, like the ones I find at Target®. I love their C9 line of workout gear– they also have a great children’s line that my kids practically live in.
1. Shirt
2. Capri
3. Seamless Tee
4. Sports Bra
5. Flip Flops
6. Gym Bag
7. Kettle Bell
1. Layering Top
2. Duo Dry Tech Tee
3. Headband
4. Sneaker
5. Compression Legging
Where is your life taking you in 2015? How do you plan to get there?
This post was sponsored by Target® through their partnership with POPSUGAR Select. While I was compensated to write a post about Target® C9, all opinions are my own.
