Positive Goal Setting n the New Year!

Happy New Year from the LifeSpan Team! We had a lovely break over the Christmas and New Year period but we are back on deck and hitting the ground running. There are lots of exciting plans for 2019 so keep an eye on our blog for updates.

With the New Year comes the intention of setting positive goals and resolutions for the year ahead. Here’s some tips on how you can stick to and make positive changes in 2019.

  1. Strive for goals that are attainable and realistic.

The surest way to break a New Year’s resolution is to make your goal unattainable. An example is to never eat ice cream again when ice cream is your favourite treat or snack; it is setting yourself up to fail. Instead say you will treat yourself to ice cream once a week or once a fortnight and to have a smaller portion.

  1. Plan In advance

 

Planning for a goal, giving it a lot of thought, weighing up the pro’s and con’s sets a good foundation for achieving your goals.

Here’s a good goal setting program Self Authoring Program , this helps you set a good vision for each of your goals.  A vision board with picture of your goals helps you to keep focused on what you want to achieve- it’s also fun to make.

 

  1. Make a pro’s & con’s list

Make a list of the pros and cons of each particular goal to make sure you are not selling yourself short in order to obtain the goal. For example, you may want to take an overseas holiday. The pro is that you are going to have a lovely time in Europe but a con may be that in order to save the money you will have to cut your gym membership. Weigh up the positives and negatives and see if it is going to be worthwhile to make some sacrifices.

  1. Talk about it

Don’t keep your goals or resolutions a secret, talk to your friends and family about what it is you are want to achieve, they can help keep you on track or even help you with your goal.. Your friends can hold you accountable by and you can help each other.

  1. Reward yourself

Make sure that you are also rewarding yourself. If you are denying yourself experiences or things in order to achieve a goal you can almost be guaranteed that you will slip up and be tempted to stop trying to achieve. For example, you may want to save $5,000 this year and not spending any money on anything fun. Instead, maybe each time you save $500 you can allow yourself to go and buy a something for yourself as a celebration. This way you are still feeling like you are not denying yourself of things in order to save money.

 

  1. Don’t be so hard on yourself

Don’t beat yourself up over the occasional slip up; this doesn’t help you to achieve your goal. Just take each day as it comes and if you slip up just get back on track again. Tomorrow is another day.

 

  1. Stick with it

Research says that it takes 21 days to form a habit and six months for it to form into part of your personality so stick with it. Persistence pays off eventually.

 

  1. Keep trying

Don’t despair if you have not stuck to your resolutions by February, just start over and keep going. Tomorrow is a new day, just keep on going, if you slip up, get back on track. . Talk to friends; get some ideas on what they suggest to help you stick to your goals. If you become despondent consider a life coach or a counsellor.

 

  1. Do free QPR Training (save a life in 2019)!

Make 2019 the year that you do free QPR training to help save a life. QPR is Question, Persuade, Refer and is a free online suicide prevention training course. QPR will help you to recognise the warning signs for suicide and help you to start a conversation to help those in need. Click here to access free QPR Training.