How to make successful New Year’s resolutions
It’s playtime at the McCormick house. Parents Emily and Cameron have fun with Conner and Clara as they play with their Christmas toys. Now they feel it’s time to look forward to a new year and New Year’s resolutions.
Emily is eager to get some help with her goals, so she gets some help from life coach, Allison Larsen who asks her what her goal is.
“My goal is to have an attitude of positivity,” McCormick said.
“I want to commend you,” Larsen said. “That’s a great goal. The first thing I want to talk to you about is your “why”. Because after you set a goal if you don’t have a good “why” then you probably aren’t going to stick to it so, why do you want to have a great attitude?”
“My “why” is for my personal happiness and being a beacon of light for others around me to spread my positivity,” McCormick replied.
Larson went on to explain to McCormick that it’s important not to set goals that are too broad or unrealistic.
“So if you say, for example, ‘I’m never going to eat sugar again,’ the first time you eat sugar you’ve failed,” Larsen explained. “The second problem is that you can never really celebrate your success till you get to the end of your life. So, simply break it down. My favorite phrase is ‘just for today.’ Just for today I am gong to chose to eat healthy so I am fit and full of energy. Can you think of something just for today? Think of a set of actions to measure your success.”
“Doing something outside of my comfort zone, even if it’s something like smiling and saying hi to a complete stranger,” McCormick responded. “Another example day to day with my kids would be to laugh at something that would otherwise make me angry.”
“That’s a great way to state it,” Larsen said. “So, at the end of each day you can ask yourself, ‘have I smiled at somebody today, and did I laugh at something my kids did?'”
Larsen cautions that if a person fails to meet a goal one day, it’s not the end of the world.
“It’s OK if you fail for a day – there’s always tomorrow,” Larsen said.
McCormicks plan to take Larsen’s advice to heart as they set their 2016 goals.
For more information on News Year’s resolutions and other life skills from Allison Larsen, go to AllisonLarsen.com.
