Staying on Track for an Amazing Year

Has 2020 started with a bang?  The start of the new year creates so much promise and anticipation and many of us use this time to create a new life path.

Creating the start of a life change is the easy part, keeping that momentum throughout the year, now that can be challenge.  Don’t let the bang turn into a fizzle. Here are some practical approaches to keeping you on track for an amazing 2020 and help you achieve your goals:

Follow a holistic approach

With so many different goals you may have set out for yourself in 2020, how do you achieve them?  A sustainable lifestyle change needs to come from within, it can’t just be about external change.  Setting your intentions and then writing them down is a great place to start.  So instead of saying, “I want to lose weight” say “I want to feel great in my body”.  From that point, you develop a strategy that has positive steps along it.  The holistic approach comes from healing from within and viewing your life in a positive way.  Take your goal and do it in a way that will gear you for lifestyle change.  In a yogic perspective, we always want to practice ahimsa which means non-violence in mind, body, and spirit.  We want to achieve life change, not by punishing or pushing too hard, but by searching within and finding the reason you want to change:  to feel great.

Set achievable goals

Once you decide what you want to achieve in 2020, you need an action plan.  Think simple, what can you achieve in a week?  By understanding the components and working on them, you can then construct the big picture.  Many times, we lose our motivation for a variety of reasons.  When you find, yourself struggling, go back to your weekly goal, not a future goal, but one you already achieved.  Use that as motivation to get you back on track remembering that probably a short time before, it was also out of reach.  It may mean you stay at that level for a few more weeks, but maybe that is enough for you to get yourself back on track.  Allow yourself times when you need to rest or maybe you take a step back.  Don’t be in a rush, life change isn’t about just doing a 6 or 8-week challenge, but about creating a whole new way of doing things.  Allow the journey to be as important as the life lesson.

Use mindfulness to keep your momentum

To keep yourself motivated and moving forward, mindfulness is also a tool.  This technique can take many forms but one suggestion is to spend 5 minutes reflecting on what you have already achieved and then what your next step will be.  Don’t visualize the big picture but focus on the present moment, remembering where you came from and accepting the path before you.  While you visualize, you just inhale slowly, through the nose, and then exhale.  By adding this technique, you learn to be grateful to yourself for all your efforts and that they are worth it and you are doing the right things.

2020 is your year to create the life you have always wanted.  By using positivity and achievable goals, you can start on the path to success.  To keep the motivation or to come back from losing your focus, use mindfulness exercises.  They will help you realize that you are, in fact, getting there.  It’s okay to stumble, just keep at it and don’t allow the past, to cloud the future.

Stay in the present and be the best version you can be; everything else will just take care of itself.