Are the New Year’s resolutions working for you?

It is the beginning of a New Year, and the buzzword now is none other than the New Year resolutions. Many of us are setting them up at the beginning of each year, and at the end of December, we start evaluating. We recognize we did not accomplish much, so we begin again.

We choose the same ones, hoping that this year we will achieve them. Again, no change, then we get tired and drop them because for some reasons it does not work.

Have you been in this situation before? Does it sound familiar to you? I am sure each of us went through it at a certain point in our life. Maybe you wanted to lose some weight, stop drinking, do not stress anymore, or just start eating healthy. These are a few typical and straightforward examples, yet still so hard to succeed. Why? Because our focus is not on the bigger picture.

As you can notice, all the above examples are referring to becoming a healthier being. Instead of focusing on just that, we choose to zoom in and see the little increments mentioned above. This narrow view will only help us grind and struggle, and not allow us to achieve greater things.

To succeed we have to build a clear image of ourselves and of how we want our life to be. When we have this picture crystal clear in our minds, and we mean every bit of it, our energies will concentrate on getting us there. It may not happen overnight; nonetheless, every action we consciously take is directed towards fulfilling that vision.

If we focus only on reaching the goals (resolutions), we miss living the life. I finally realized that being goal oriented helped me get where I wanted to get, but I do not remember much of how I got there. The lesson learned: enjoy the journey, not the destination. I knew this intellectually for a long time, but it was not in my experience until recently.

We have to be aware of every moment to live life fully. I made that change, so you can too. Since then, my life has completely transformed, and now my only resolution is to become a better human being.