Start small AND start now!!!
Posted on 8th January 2025 at 07:27
First things first. We wish you a very happy – and healthy (!) – New Year, may 2025 be a great year for you!!!
So, another shiny New Year beckons. The million dollar question is what are you going to do with it? What plans do you have? Big and, just as important, small. And, if you’re wondering why small is just as important, there’s a very simple answer. Not only are small things less scary and so easier to do – as well as fitting more easily into your day – but quickly build up into a much bigger result.
Which brings us on to the dreaded New Year’s resolutions. As regular readers of this blog will know, we’re not great fans of the usual approach to New Year’s resolutions. It’s the reason we refer to them as the dreaded New Year’s resolutions (!).
To us, peer pressure – “I’ve decided to lose 3 stone / run the London Marathon / double my salary / fill in the blank what about you?” – plus industrial quantities of food and alcohol isn’t a great recipe for a successful outcome. Little wonder that most New Year’s resolutions don’t make it past the first week in January, let alone have a successful or happy ending…
And, that’s without all the new ammunition it gives the Little Monster in our Heads. Not only about our failure to make the changes we desire, but also to undermine our future efforts. “Why bother, you failed last time, have another chocolate / drink / fill in the blank and you’ll feel better.”
So, all in all, not a great start to the shiny New Year.
Before we go any further, if you’d like a quick reminder about some of the suggestions we’ve made in previous years, about how to have a kinder – and less stressful – start to the shiny New Year, the links to our last few New Year’s posts are below:
The hidden influences that so easily undermine our best efforts without us every realising it, can be found here.
A “one size fits all” approach to the New Year, is here.
A gentler start to the New year, is here.
An antidote to New Year’s resolutions, focussing on the riches we already have and take for granted, is here.
So, what are we going to suggest this year?
Well, it’s something we’ve already mentioned in this post. Small things trump large ones every time. NOW HERE’S THE CRUCIAL BIT. When you’ve decided what they are, to START NOW with just one of them, rather than putting it off to some “magical” date in the future – even if it’s that old favourite, tomorrow. As in, tomorrow never comes…
Put another way, don’t put off till tomorrow – next Monday / next month / 1st January (!) – something that can be started today.
It's better to start cutting down the sugar in your coffee or tea TODAY, rather than waiting for when it feels “right” or you don’t feel you need the extra sweetness / energy / something else (!).
It’s better to cloud watch, zone out or meditate for 5 minutes in your car TODAY, while you’re waiting for the shop to open / the person you’re collecting / something else, than to wait for the perfect 30 minutes when you’ve got the house to yourself and are in the “right” mood (!).
It’s better to park a little further way away from where you’re going TODAY and get a little more exercise, than wait until you can do a “proper” walk every day and hit your target of 10,000 steps a day.
It’s better to walk up a couple of flights of stairs TODAY, than use the lift at work, rather than waiting for the “right” time to start going to the gym.
There’s never going to be an ideal time to start anything new, so don’t let the Little Monster in your Head use that as yet another reason to sabotage your best intentions – and efforts.
Whatever it is, START NOW in whatever way you can and then build it up from there. It really can be that simple.
That’s how to get the most from your shiny New Year…
As always, the choice is yours.
Picture by unknown author
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