Maintaining The Vision With Resolutions

It’s early in the year of 2011 and many people are embarking on a new life filled with resolutions that were set on New Year’s. These resolutions might include weight loss, a better relationship with their spouse, getting a new job, and so forth. Resolutions are great – I’m a big fan of them. Like most people, however, I find the making of resolutions a lot easier than the keeping of those same resolutions. Many of us start out with great intentions for the coming year. Most of us fall short of realizing those intentions. Most resolutions require a change to something that is an ingrained habit. Whether it is what and how much we eat, how we treat our spouse, how we perform at our job (or how we go about finding a job)…in the end, it requires a re-definition of our behaviors that is consistently realized. Making change in your life requires, in my opinion, three components. It requires a change in thoughts, words and actions. Focusing on any one of these components without the support of the others creates unstable results. Think of a tripod – if supported on only one or two legs, it’s going to fall. Most people only focus on outer actions, however, and then wonder why their success is limited. I believe that this is, in a sense, “putting the cart before the horse”. I am of the school of thought that all outer action (as well as inner talk) proceeds from our thoughts. More importantly, I believe that our outer actions flow from our inner identity – who we see and believe ourselves to be. A lot of people reading this article might think that this is just a restatement of the (now) old “Law of Attraction” philosophy. To a degree, I suppose it is. I am a believer in this philosophy and have seen it prove itself in my own life. That being said, I am not proposing anything metaphysical here. Instead, I am suggesting an approach that is rooted in psychology. I believe it was Emile Coue who said that “when imagination and will are in opposition, imagination invariably wins”. This is true. A person’s concept of themselves determines the perspective from which they view the world, the self-talk that they use, and how they act outwardly in the world. This is not just visualization or saying affirmations. This has to be a genuine inner shift where you view the world from the perspective of the person you want to be. You make the “future self” the “current self” and view the world from that perspective. You make it natural to who you are and choose to be. Techniques such as visualization and affirmation are useful in making this shift – but you are not trying to force a shift in perspective. You have to let it come over you and be natural to you. You wear the new identity like a comfortable pair of shoes as you walk through the day. The best author I can recommend for techniques in the assuming a new identity is the New Thought author Neville Goddard. He came at this idea from a metaphysical perspective, but his techniques are still sound for assuming a new identity. Another author that is worth investigating is Maxwell Maltz and his book Psycho-Cybernetics. If you want greater success with realizing you resolutions for the New Year – become the person you want to be inwardly first. The outward actions will flow almost magically from this inner shift of identity. Make the shift and enjoy the joy of realizing your dreams and goals. The ball is ALWAYS in your court to decide who you are going to be each and every day.