“This year I will stop…”
“This year I will ……. every week.”
“This year I’m going to give up …”
Sound familiar?
Usual New Year’s resolutions come in the form of “I will” or “I won’t”. They’re very binary and either you succeed with them or you fail – there is no middle ground. This typically means you end up beating yourself up about them until you finally forget you made the resolution/resolutions and then nothing really changes. Not that helpful.
Well, why not rephrase things and make a change to your life and to your happiness? It’s actually very simple. Instead of making a list of things you will or won’t do, or definitive goals you want to achieve, rewrite your resolutions in the form of a “more” and “less” list.
Here’s what we mean. Perhaps you want to learn a new language (French for example), you also want to see your friends a couple of nights a week, you want to stop biting your nails, and you want to give up drinking fizzy drinks. That would get written up as:
More: Less:
French Nail biting
Time with friends Fizzy drinks
There’s no saying that one fizzy drink will mean you’ve broken your vow, and not seeing your friends one week is a failure. It’s about more of what you love, and less of what you don’t. Any degree of success on either list is a win.
This year, why not write up your “more” or “less” New Year’s list and put it somewhere where you’ll see it on a regular basis. You might be surprised what a difference a little change of wording can make to your achievements, self-expectations and your everyday life and happiness.
