Gosh, is it that time of year again?!

Making resolutions can be a wonderful way to set your year’s intentions and focus. They can also end up a completely futile, even negative task, leaving you disappointed and dissatisfied.

According to 2017 statistics, merely 9.2% of respondents felt they were successful in achieving their resolutions! That’s pretty slim.

Huffington Post writer, Carolyn Gregoire, thinks we’re a little too ambitious with our resolutions, leaving very little wriggle room for the realities of our lives. I agree with her to an extent.

We tell ourselves that this will be the year we’ll give up carbs, go running every morning, become a vegan or quit drinking.

An extent – because sometimes, specific goals create something tangible and clear.

SO HOW CAN YOU MAKE YOUR 2019 GOALS POSITIVELY BENEFICIAL?

1. Yes, do be realistic.

If you can break down that ambitious goal into something realistic, then go for it!

2. Be specific.

Fine tune the details so you know exactly what steps you need to take to achieve the goal.

3. Measure it.

How will you even know you’ve achieved your goal!?

4. Perhaps have a theme.

This is something I’ve done for a few years. Set a theme for the year. An example from my past years include; ‘the year of the gut’ – in this year I wanted to get a hold on my gut issues, meaning committing to getting laboratory testing, Coeliac testing, hydrogen breathe testing, going gluten-free, reintroducing dairy after a negative lactose test, overall learning more about my gut health, (later discovering I had constipation-dominant IBS). The year of the gut was also about my intuition; a year, where I wanted to trust my gut more and make decisions with love, and less with my head.

SO WHERE AM I AT THIS YEAR?

After some thought, I want to fear stress less. I’ve realized that fearing stress has been contributing to indecision. Is there such thing as stress trauma? Because I think I have been suffering this after my big crash and burn a few years ago! So this year, I want to stop avoiding taking on work, but still be realistic about my workload. After all, I’m currently a full-time mum.

I also want to keep working on refining my health and the specific ingredients that work for me.

Improve my cardiovascular fitness. I’m shocking here, convinced I’m just not built for endurance exercise, so realistically I’d like to hit 5 km of steady state cardio (I’m currently just over half this before my lungs, hips and knees give way).

What do you want to improve this year? And do you have a theme? I’d love to know about it. Comment below.