Recently I heard the New Year described as a book with 12 Chapters and 365 pages. What a great analogy!
It’s empowering to consider that we are the authors of our life journey and that we are gifted at the start of 2018 with an opportunity to plot a new storyline, if we so choose.
Do you feel excited and hopeful about the year ahead? Do you have changes you want to make?
Many people are going to continue on rerun mode due to unhealthy habits, lack of effective strategies, and not using neuroplasticity to their advantage. While they desperately want to make changes, learn new things, be more positive, have more energy, develop their skill set, and reach their goals… it probably won’t happen.
If this is a concern for you, there is something you can do about it.
While each of us is unique, there are universal principles and strategies that are useful to implement in order to optimize your brain power and leverage your mindset to make positive and sustainable changes.
I’d like to share 5 keys to making positive changes with you:
1. SET INTENTIONS, NOT GOALS:
This may sound odd, but it’s definitely an important factor in your success.
Most people have an ingrained connotation for the word goal – a point you score in a sports match such as soccer or hockey that will determine a win or a loss for you and your team.
Typically goals are associated with a pass or fail, for example a driver’s test or school exam. More emphasis is put on the end result vs. the actual process.
In contrast, intentions move you in a particular direction, fueled and directed by each step of the process, the learning acquired throughout, and the experience you gain along the way.
By providing space for re-evaluation and tweaking, intentions are more realistic and workable.
Once we set our sails and begin to navigate the waters of our life, new sights, sounds, smells, interactions, information, experiences, and understanding come forth. This information needs to be considered and incorporated into our plan and can very well change our entire outlook on where we want to go.
2. USE YOUR SMILE BAROMETER:
The best intentions to set are the ones that ‘Light Your Fire’!
If you are not truly motivated to reach an outcome, then you will not sustain the energy, effort and actions required to achieve those results. Procrastination is surely to set in if you do not have a solid desire to make it happen.
So think about your current situation, consider if/how you would like things to be different — then imagine yourself achieving those results. Does that new vision make you smile? If so, then go for it! If not, find something that does.
3. LEVERAGE YOUR MIRRORS:
We have something called mirror neurons which are a type of brain cell that responds equally when we perform an action and when we witness someone else perform the same action. This internal response allows us to build empathy, understanding, and skill sets. Use this to your advantage and surround yourself with people such as a mentor, coach, club or friend who are walking your talk!
For example, if you want to quit smoking it would not make sense for you to hang out with people who are puffing away, right? As well, if you want to become a better tennis player, then it would make sense to hang out with those who have mastered a higher skill level than yourself.
4. MOVE YOUR FOCUS:
Focus is clearly an important skill to have when we want to do a job well or to achieve our goals. However, when you have a BIG DREAM in mind, it’s easy to become consumed by it. Ensure you have movement based activities interspersed into your daily life to activate your brain in different ways.
For example, if you have a goal of writing a book, sitting at your laptop hours on end hammering away on the keyboard will only fatigue you and make your brain stale!
Engage in something active like yoga classes, dance lessons, or trail hiking. Or if you are short on time, do some quick and fun Brain Fitness activities. This will help pace your process, keep your brain firing on all cylinders, and make you more interesting to be around – no one likes a one-track mind anyway!
5. CHANGE IT UP:
If you don’t know exactly HOW to make positive changes or move in the direction of your dreams, simply start by doing something (anything) differently than how you are currently doing it right now.
That can be as easy as getting up at a different time, eating different foods, driving a new route to work, or listening to music genres you don’t usually select. These small changes can reap big results, because they will engage you and your brain in new ways — and that will inevitably create ripples in new directions as your sensory system attunes to this novel material.
What are some changes you want to implement this year? What steps are you going to take to reach your goals? I’d love to hear from you!
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To your Happy New Year,
Jill