New Year, new me!

You begin the New Year with much zest, promising yourself that you will work towards improving your lifestyle, and that this year will finally be the year you attain the “new you”. Jostling with your old self, you resolve towards making the New Year yours to achieve these goals.

Often these resolutions revolve around weight loss, or beautifying your physical self, exercise routines, and/or eating habits. However, a few weeks into this new routine, and people tend to give up. “It is quite common for people to quit their New Year resolutions, without even reaching midway through their goals. And one big reason for this surrender is setting unreasonable goals,” explains life coach Khyati Birla.

She elaborates, “When people are in the New Year spirit, they choose goals for themselves that are unattainable in a short span of time. As a result, their interest and enthusiasm about the resolution dissolves soon  enough.”

Many times, these goals aren’t set by people themselves, but are set by others around them; with exceptions, of course. “Consider a goal to slim down. For a lot of people, it is those around them that set this goal. And so, when the goal becomes a challenge, it gets difficult to stick to it,” she explains.

The understanding of the process of setting realistic goals is raw. Life coach Priya Kumar says that one of the biggest pitfalls is that these resolutions are all lifestyle and habit changes. “Getting on a better diet, exercising daily, eating organic, quitting smoking or drinking — all these are lifestyle and habit changes that don’t go anywhere till a lot of time and effort is put into it,” she begins. “What they also require is numerous little adjustments around them, which puts people off,” she says.

Assume for a moment that you have decided to eat organic this year. “But have you taken into consideration the other adjustments around this lifestyle change?” questions Priya. “You don’t consider if your family will be okay with eating organic, if it is easily available, how much more money it will cost. So when all these factors pose as a challenge, people tend to give up,” she explains.

One way to not fall into the same cycle again is to ensure that your resolution is sustainable and your goals attainable.

“People often overestimate their capabilities, which leads them to set huge goals,” Khyati begins. “But I believe that resolutions need to evoke a happy emotion in you, which will help you walk the road of improvement for a long time. Therefore, the idea should be to set small, short-term goals, and giving in your 100 percent,” she suggests.

Agreeing with Khyati, Priya lays down some key pointers. “Be tolerant, patient, consistent and persistent,” she says, adding that adapting should also be an approach for New Year resolutions. “The idea is to prepare for smaller adjustments around your big lifestyle change instead of jumping onto the big one.”