It's Never Too Late to Recommit to Your New Year's Resolutions

It's been three months since you made your New Year's resolution. Have you stuck with it?

If you're still working out, losing weight, remaining smoke-free, achieving better grades, organizing your life or doing whatever else it was that you promised yourself you'd do, congratulations. Keep up the good work. If you're like the majority of people, though, you probably forgot all about your resolution sometime around mid-February.

The good news is that it's never too late to begin again. We're heading into the second quarter of the year, and that's a perfect time to recommit to your goals.

Take a few minutes to think about all of the benefits you will achieve when you reach your goal. Spend a little more time imagining that you have achieved your goal already.

For example, if your objective is to lose weight, imagine what it feels like to be physically lighter and slimmer. Imagine what you look like at your ideal weight. Imagine all the ways that your life will be different when you achieve your weight loss goal. Will you be participating in new activities? Will you have more energy for the activities you currently engage in? Picture it in your mind and feel it in your body.

If you want to quit smoking, imagine what it feels like to drive to work without lighting up. Imagine what the fresh air around you smells like. Imagine having fresher breath and being able take a deep breath without tightness or coughing. Imagine spending time with family or friends without having to repeatedly excuse yourself from the group to go have a smoke. Imagine all of the ways you might spend the extra money you save by not having to buy cigarettes. Think of other positive ways your life may change as well.

Whatever your New Year's resolution may have been, and whether or not you stuck to it until now, it's always appropriate to recommit to your goals from time to time. And a simple thought exercise is sometimes all that's needed to re-motivate you and re-energize your goal. Don't forget why you made your resolution in the first place. Most likely the reason is just as important today as it was three months ago.

If you're still having difficulty jumpstarting your goal's batteries, take a look at your original plan. (You did make a plan for how you were going to achieve your goal, right?) Was the plan reasonable? Maybe it needs some fine tuning to make it workable. If you didn't have a plan, then this would be a good time to make one.

This is also a good time to re-establish your deadline or to create a deadline if you don't yet have one. Perhaps you wanted to have achieved your goal by now, but there's no way you're going to lose those twenty pounds all in one day. So, you can select a new target date.

With a new or fine-tuned plan, a reasonable deadline, and a recommitment to your goal and all of the benefits that reaching that goal will bring into your life, you're ready for the next leg of the journey toward achieving your New Year's resolution. Remember you can recommit at any time: each quarter, each month, or even each new day. 

Michele P. Rousseau is a certified hypnotist and life coach in Middletown. For information, see http://micheleprousseau.com.