Saturday, January 3, 2015
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| My Tokay Gecko: Haku |
2015 is here and it is time to say goodbye to 2014. As we make our New Year resolutions it is important to realize that they don't always have to be made to impress other people. We often make goals that set ourselves up for failure before we even get close to achieving that goal. Instead of putting down a long term goal that seems impossible and far away, put down smaller steps that will lead you to your ultimate goal.
For example, I used to put down "get six pack abs." Realistically, we would all love to have that, do I have a six pack? Ha! No I do not. I put that down for years and I still have never accomplished that goal. Well, I have come to realize I need to be more realistic about the goals I set and how long I give myself. A more realistic approach that could drive me to this goal is perhaps: do a 15 min workout 3 times a week. If that's even too complex you could put down: do 50 crunches a day. Those steps are more doable and can be visualized better than just saying get six pack abs.
Secondly, have realistic time demands for achieving your goals. I know myself better than anyone else. So a realistic approach for the six pack abs would be do 50 crunches a day for a year. Guess what I'm probably (well hopefully) going to have some kind of ab definition which still driven to the long term goal.
I know my example has been purely physically based and New Year resolutions don't always need to be that. They can be spiritual and mentally driven as well. That is why I mentioned that resolutions shouldn't be written based upon impressing other people but based upon yourself. Mindfulness is a powerful tool and the better you know yourself, faults and all, the more room you have for accepting improvement and inviting in change that can ultimately help you out in the long run.
That being said, I have put a lot of thought into my New Year resolutions. I did not compile a list of a thousand things, but I made it simple and based on self improvement that I can achieve realistically. This is rather personal and I would really enjoy seeing what you guys have to say about this and would also love to see your New Year resolutions as well. Well.... here it goes... 5 New Year resolutions.
1. Love myself more (probably my most important one on the list)
We live a world surrounded by vanity and a multitude of popular media telling us what we need to look like to be beautiful. So much so that we often lose sight of what really makes us beautiful and our life becomes filled with absolute negativity. We should focus on our positive aspects. The more positive we are about ourselves the more love we have to give.
2. Listen without the intent to reply.
I find myself lost in other people's words because I am too nervous thinking about what I am going to say back, then what they will think about what I am going to say. Instead, I am truly going to try and listen to others with undivided attention. This is a hard one but it will be doable! You don't always have to say something back. More importantly it doesn't have to be about myself. I used to look at it as showing commonalities between the other person and I, but i met someone that talked exactly like myself. It sounded selfish and that they genuinely didn't really care about what I was saying.
3. Make more genuine friends.
When you get older the amount of friends you have becomes so unimportant. Really it is the quality of friends that you have. I went through a period of my life were I was making big changes and found that I really only had one "friend". I have also realized that it takes effort to maintain and gain friendships so I will take time to get to know possible friends better and perhaps they will become life long.
4. From the above: Workout at least 3 times a week
I don't really need to explain this one...
5. Lastly, to try something new frequently.
This one is very vague for a reason. This could range from a new hobby to trying some food I've never had. I recently tried power yoga and I have decided it is a very wonderful form of exercise and is different from what I usually do.
(And a small side resolution is to write a blog post every week)
Well there you have it! 5 new year resolutions that I can totally achieve. It will be really fun to come back to this post next year and see how much I have grown from now.
