Are you one of the 95% of people who have already broken your New Years Resolutions? Or perhaps you don’t bother any more because, like me, after few days or weeks we have forgotten the promises we made to ourselves, and our bad habits have won again.What does it take for lasting change?
Resolutions for most of us is just a wish list.
My metaphysical friends say: “Dream big, ask for what you want and wait; The Universe will bring it to you.” I say ‘yes’ to that idea, however I also think you will be required to put a little work into it.
Below is my formula that takes you from your wishful resolution into a real tangible and specific outcome.:
- You notice how something about you or something in your life is irritating, or you notice sadness about something or about yourself. You notice it’s not new, but it has been with you for awhile. You have wanted it to change, and have tried to change it many many times …to no avail. One day, you wake up to realize you have been living Groundhog Day over and over again.
- You get mad as hell and completely fed up with it.
- You take your power back.
- You Raise your Standard.
Steps to Raising your Standard:
- Have a compelling vision that pulls you and inspires you. What is the dream or goal you are going for? Don’t expect willpower to push you through, (willpower is why you are where you are.)
- You need strong reasons to pull you through so that your specific outcome begins to take shape.
- Review your vision and feel it everyday. Find someone whose standards you admire, with the aspects you desire. Or it might be a famous person you admire whose background is public knowledge. Maybe it is their wealth, body, career, or relationship etc that you resonate with.Interview them and/or those close to them (or Google them) so you can learn their habits, emulate their patterns and bring those patterns into your own life. For instance if it is body: feel what it feels like to be them…in great shape, wearing the clothes they wear…being in their skin. Let yourself begin to walk like they walk and talk like they talk. This is called “getting into state”.After exploring your body, then you can add some auditory and say things to yourself like “I eat fruit and veggies at every meal”. You can also add pictures that look like your outcome fulfilled, and display them in places you will see often.
- Now, you are ready to pay close attention. Begin to notice if what you are doing is working or if you need to back up, fix it, tweak it and do something a little different. In other words know what you are getting…use your sensory acuity and notice the distinctions and if it’s not working change your approach.
What is your standard?
We follow through on who we believe we are. How do you define yourself? When did you define yourself? And then we back up our self definition with habits. All of our results in life come from our habits.
If you are overweight you have completely different habits from someone who is physically fit. Perhaps, if you are fit, your alarm goes off in the morning and you roll out of bed, put on your gym clothes and shoes and you are out the door to the gym or to your walk or run.
However, if you are overweight, your alarm goes off and perhaps you roll over, hit the snooze a few times and finally get up to grab bowl of cereal, a sugary muffin or some other high carb breakfast. You begin tweeting, texting or emailing.
My Wake-up Moment
In 2007 I had a moment when I woke up. I was in my closet trying on clothes and looking for something that didn’t make me look fat. There was just one little problem or should I say BIG problem. I was at least 60 pounds overweight. I did not like the way I looked…I hated the way I looked in every thing. I got mad as hell in that moment and I took my power back and decided NO MORE! NO MORE starting my diet on Monday or even tomorrow as I had told myself almost everyday to no avail. This time I was going to find a way for change…for lasting change and I was going to stick to it and Raise My Standard.
I was smart and lucky and joined Weight Watchers. The great thing about Weight Watchers is that it encompasses all the steps of Raising My Standard and Changing My Habits.
Everyday I wrote down what I ate and how much I ate and logged all my physical activities…some days walking or sprinting or working out with weights.
At our weekly meeting I weighed in to see the results of my week and shared with other members what was working for us.
These were my new habits and how I changed from my old habits. Success and failure are not giant events. They don’t happen suddenly. They come from all the little things. And I got awarded a star from my Weight Watcher leader every time I achieved a goal. Damn, I loved those stars!
What area of life do you want to improve?
Financial | Spiritual | Career | Body | Relationships
- Write down the truth. What is your life like right now?
- Write down the habits that have shaped your current conditions.
- Write down what you really want.
- Write down the habits that will get you your vision and what you have to do differently to get you what you want.
Be specific…if it is body like mine was, how many days a week you will work out, what time of day and put it in your calendar. Make a date with yourself. Mark the days and times so that it becomes a habit. What foods will you eat?
Wake yourself up! Raise Your Standard and enjoy the life you came here to live.
