Your 2020 Vision
I’m not sure if it’s the association of the year 2020 to our eyesight or that it’s the beginning of a new decade, but I sense that there’s a shift from the usual resolution approach. That is, a shift to an approach that is more vision focused. From my perspective, this is a welcome change from the usual approach that involves radically changing our habits at the beginning of the year, resulting in us giving up after a few weeks. However, for those of us who make these resolutions, we have convinced ourselves that “this year will be different” or “I am really committed this time”. But no matter how resolved we are at the beginning of the year, it’s highly likely we will give up on these resolutions in just a few weeks. Before you throw up your hands and give up, take a moment to consider a couple of things.
Based on research and my own experience, the reason we are not able to make the lasting changes we desire is that “behavior change is hard”. It is difficult for all of us. That’s because we are wired to be habitual beings. We learn patterns of behavior and continue to repeat them because they serve our needs. We don’t have to think about we are doing. We can perform these tasks while we’re thinking about something else. Our habits are comfortable and familiar — simply, they make our lives easier. And anything that causes us to interrupt our patterns is uncomfortable and frustrating.
For example, most of us drive to work or run errands without much thought and barely remember how we got to our destination. We follow a routine path which makes it easy to do without much thought. And, when we have to take a different route for some reason, it’s a source of aggravation and annoyance. That’s because we have to come out of our trance and pay attention to what we are doing. Just imagine how many routine, thoughtless patterns of behavior we need to change to make a MAJOR shift in our lives, such as altering our eating or exercise behaviors. We literally have to change dozens of well-worn, comfortable patterns of behavior to sustain our goals. It’s no wonder that we find it difficult to achieve our New Year’s resolutions. So, why not consider a different approach this year?
A PROVEN APPROACH
One of the most powerful tools we have to help change our behavior is mindfulness practice. This is because behavior change requires us to be aware of automatic, mindless tasks and to make conscious and deliberate decisions to do something else. When we’re present for our lives, we have more choices available to us. We learn to pause before we act, which gives us the space to make a choice that’s in alignment with our goals. Plus, we learn to practice self-compassion, which involves becoming aware of the negative self-talk that limits us and gives us permission to give up on things that are important to us.
Most of us give little thought as to how we can support our efforts to break old habits and start new ones. To be successful, we need to put a conscious and intentional focus on this process. To help you get started on making this year different, we have included three exercises below that might give you a jumpstart in realizing your vision for 2020.
Happy New Year to you all. Hope this year brings you all the happiness and health you desire.
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