Rather than making difficult New Year’s Resolutions that take lots of time, money and energy to achieve, take some time at the beginning of the New Year for some personal reflection.
It’s easy to wake up on January 1 and decide that you’re going to lose weight, write a book or completely change your career, but actually achieving those huge, lofty goals is another thing altogether. In fact, the bigger the goal the longer it takes to achieve, making it harder to stay on the path to success because you don’t see results immediately.
It’s wonderful if you are a fan of making resolutions, and even better if you stick to them! But if you’re one of the many people who fail their resolution by February, then personal reflection might be more suited to you.
Personal reflection is an opportunity for you to reflect on and evaluate how your life looked and felt in the previous year. It can be an opportunity to pinpoint successes, mistakes, and things you might want to change.
3 questions you should ask yourself in January
1. What am I grateful for last year?
This is a great way to focus on all the positive and wonderful things that happened year no matter how large or small.
2. What things caused me the greatest pain and stress last year?
This question can address the people in your life, your career, your lifestyle or general health. Pinpoint the things that caused the greatest stress and heartache and think about ways you can change them this year. It might be studying so you can change careers, it might be removing toxic relationships from your life or it might simply be making time to meditate in the morning so you start every day off with a level mind.
3. What do I want more of in my life this year?
Have a long, hard think about what you want your life to look like this year. Perhaps you want to make more time for family or for yourself. You may even want to simplify your life by reducing as many costs and commitments as possible. It might be a case of simply wanting your life to be cool. Calm and collected this year. Whatever your goals, let last year’s hits and misses inform this years goals.
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