Goals Without Pain

How to Make New Year Resolutions Without Harming Your Health
By Philip Allen

Reviewing your life and making a plan of what you want is vital if you are going to achieve anything yet every year millions of people use the turning of the year as a reason to begin the annual ritual of making a New Year's Resolutions List like “to loose weight”, “to stop smoking”, “to eat healthily” and wonder why they can not keep them this year although they failed to keep them last year & the year before. Remember what Albert Einstein said
“To do the same thing over & over and to expect different results is insanity”
The New Year Resolution ritual damages your Health because by attempting to change too many major habits at once your focus is divided and you do not achieve any of the goals you set so by beginning of February, most people’s resolutions will be no more than a dim memory although the ill effects of lowered self esteem and regret at wasting money on joining a gym that you do not use, may not be visible yet can accumulate for the rest of your life.
Most people’s New Year’s Resolutions are designed to fail because they are too vague and negatively worded like “to loose weight”. The human mind has been designed over evolution to support its user by only taking notice of positive things that it believes are important for self preservation, the removal of pain or the advancement of pleasure and not spending energy unnecessarily. So the subconscious mind will stop taking action once the goal is achieved i.e. as soon as any weight is lost by going to the toilet. If this was not what you intended then your conscious mind says “You are unable to do it”, “Your will power is not strong enough” over & over again. This lowers your self esteem which, left unchecked will lead to lower resistance to illness and more expensive visits to doctors for drugs to combat the symptoms of depression instead of dealing with the cause of the dis-ease.
Your Thoughts create feelings create actions on & though your body = Resultsr
Only you can give events in your life their meaning unless you choose to accept others’ interpretations. As the feeling of the “perceived failure” to loose weight is unpleasant your mind will seek out mind numbing substances like alcohol; illicit drugs; or as scientific studies have shown, sugar & TV (brain less active while watching TV then when in deep sleep).
A practical approach would be to Focus on one major SMART positively worded resolution each month and work on it until a habit is formed.
Scientific studies that it takes 21 to 28 consecutive days of conscious effort to install a new habit. Therefore, if you focus on only one resolution for each month you will end up with 12 new well installed changes by the end of the year to celebrate.
A SMART & positive New Year Resolution would be: to regain your ideal body weight (-50lb) by exercising 5min extra a day so you could get into your swim suit for your vacation in June because it is Specific, Meaningful to you, Action orientated, Realistic to achieve a steady weight loss of 2lb a week that stays off as it is caused by a life style change of eating smaller portions or cutting out one burger meal a week instead of the unhealthy diet/binge eating cycle and is Timed. A SMART resolution has a good chance of being achieved. To enhance the likelihood that you will achieve your resolution even more make it SMARTER by Evaluating & Reviewing regularly.
Move around the room until you can see yourself having attained your goal. Then move again so you can look back on the time you achieved this goal.
How do you feel? More energetic, Healthier, Fitter, More empowered to achieve anythingr
How do you look? Great
Where you are, what are you doing?
How do others react to you? More loving, want to be with your
What route did you take to get past the obstacles & negative comments on the way to achieving your goal
Now, write the emotionally loaded, sensory vivid description of the benefits you have gained by achieving this goal. The more emotionally evoking & positive these details are the better.

By reading the statement every day you will strengthen your belief that you will do it.
Remember, also to track your progress and reward yourself for every step taken towards your goal as nothing motivates as much as celebrating your own success.

Focus + Motivation + Action plan + Support System = Successful New Year Resolution

Successful people follow the paths of other successful people and have mentors to help them change the habitual meaning they give events so they can change the results they have got at present due to the choices of the past and to reach the opportunities around you.
Every day you are at a crossroads in your life: You can continue on the normal path of working hard so those few who control the economy can benefit while you look forward to retiring on less than half of what you could not live on before & wonder “what if…”. Or take the short way to oblivion via alcohol, drugs or TV. Or choose to take a step towards the life of your dreams. The choice is yours.
If you want more help to have a SMARTER Life that can give you success that is not harming our Living Life Support System then email Philip@AskPhilipAllen.com