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It is the dawn of another year. The year 2016 is at the brink of its journey and it has almost become a tradition now to welcome the new year with the clamour and bang it deserves. As we welcome this new year, one of  the first few things a conversation brings is the new year resolutions. Today’s post is dedicated to all those new year resolutions we have made so far and the ones we want to make for the year coming ahead.

New Year Resolutions: The year 2015

Something that makes me a little displeased with the new year resolutions is that it makes me identify all those areas about my life which I need to improve. For starters – there is always that additional 5 pounds of weight I would like to lose, the dream job I want to have, the girl I have been meaning to ask out from a  long time, the amount of money I want to earn and so on. If you look closely, it makes you identify all those things that are missing in your life with little appreciation to what you have so far.

So let us start this the other way round, shall we? Let us start with a list of what has gone great in 2015. Of course the economy is improving, good days are coming – but we want the list to be completely about you. What are the things that have turned out great for you in 2015? What all are you thankful for? Let us make a nice big list of this please before we get start beating ourselves a bit.

New Year Resolutions: Areas of improvement

It is very crude to talk about what we are not good about or what we don’t have in our life. Instead, let us look at this – let us look at what we would like to have in our life. What do you want more? – And please do not say a million dollars. It would be a nice wishful dreaming if you don’t have an action plan towards that. Let us stick to our basics and identify the 5 areas of our life which we deem most important – Physical, Emotional, Business, Finance, Relationships. I am taking this from Anthony Robbin’s Get the edge program where he talks about the 5 most important areas of our life. Of course you can list a few more than that, but for simplicity, in this post we are sticking to these five areas.

New Year Resolutions: Physical

It will be grand to make a new year resolution and say that “I will get 6 packs in 30 days”. I found a nice book online which talks about getting that size zero figure in 10 days and I shall do that. Please do not fall into that trap. It is your health we are talking about and we do not want to push our body through all that stress just because we want good results. Tone it down a bit – identify what fits your body the most. A better resolution can be to say – “I promise myself that I will hit the gym 4 days a week”. Or if you are a highly athletic person, make it 7 days a week. Promise yourself about the diet you are going to follow. Don’t say that ” I will never eat anything fatty for 1 whole year”. Now that is a good way to start but 1 year is too long a time and we are giving ourselves just too much of a review time. Our post, 10 simple ways to motivate you to the gym everyday will be very helpful in this regard

Instead, do a weekly review of where you stand and how you can get to your ultimate goal. And the ultimate goal is not saying that you will exercise for 4 days a week. It is about saying that you will be healthy and fine, respect your body the way it deserves and treat it accordingly. If you want, you can set a target weight, but make sure that it is balanced with monthly or quarterly targets. A big ass goal will give you an initial motivation, but also please be mindful that it fades away quite soon if you don’t supplement it with results.

New Year Resolutions: Emotional

This is an aspect of our lives which most of us neglect. A probable reason is that when someone says emotional, a usual negative connotation is attached to it. Emotions are not just when you are feeling touchy or bad about something – emotions are also about you feeling excited, loved, passionate, energetic about things and living your life at the edge. A nice start can be to maintain a diary and write down the events that energise you. These events can be as small as an innocent smile or something as big as an appreciation from your boss – basically anything that energises you should go into the diary. The whole agenda is to find more ways to keep you emotionally charged and active.

New Year Resolutions: Relationship

This is an area which tends to take the driver seat in our life and yet we somehow spend lesser amount of time consciously thinking of ways to make it better. Of course one may argue that it is a very natural aspect of our lives – we wouldn’t deny that. And that is exactly why we would ask you to take extra care on that. Remember our constant ranting about entropy – given a chance, anything would find its way to a downfall. It takes constant effort to maintain progress in our life and there is no way life is going to progress without these relationships. And when we say relationships, it doesn’t necessarily mean with our partners alone, it also means the relationship we have with ourselves.

Clearly outline what you want to achieve in this year – and yes please don’t say I want to be better or more sensitive or empathetic. Give yourself some clearcut goals, goals for which you can achieve your results and prove yourselves what you have done.

New Year Resolutions: Business/Career

This can either be your career or business – basically something which you do for your passion or a living. The resolution is not to find a job which pays you more. The resolution is to find ways to enjoy your job a little more, find ways so that it can enrich your job. It can be about registering for a certification or undergoing a training program to enrich your skills. Basically all we are trying to say is – find ways to make yourself more indispensable to the company. A realistic way can be to deliver more than what is expected out of you. And it also is about being clever and letting your boss know the amount of effort you are putting in.

The resolution can be about making your company more aware as to how invaluable or committed you are. The resolution can be about getting 2 certifications for this year. Any of these resolutions are the ones which can give you a nice advantage and also can be quantified.

New Year Resolutions: Finances

Here comes the most difficult part. I believe this is one area which most of us would like to have some extra resources in and naturally enough it is the most competitive area. The new year resolution cannot be about making more money. It should be about how much and how you are going to achieve it as well. It can be about deciding to save x% of your earnings or be smart about your investments. Money is one of the easiest things to quantify. So why not go ahead and do it.

Bottom line is that we know that it is not very easy to come up with a resolution. When we make an unrealistic resolution, there is an inner voice which says it is not possible – that is called conviction. Don’t announce the resolutions you don’t believe in. And once you are convinced about a resolution – announce it to the world. Make sure that people ask you what you are doing about it. That way, it acts as a constant reminder because most often we tend to do more things for people whom we care for than for ourselves.

Above all, a new year is the time to reflect upon your past glories and fill yourself with the excitement of the future ones to come.

With this message, we would like to wish you a very happy and a successful new year from the inspire99 team. Stay tuned in for more.

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