I love new beginnings. What about you? Every 1st of the month, every Monday, every morning when I wake up.. but the biggest one is of course the start of a whole new year. You make a list with new year’s resolutions and are convinced this is going to be your year! But what if that goes wrong within a month? (..and you probably have to admit that this happened to you before!) Why are you feeling so motivated on the 1st of January, but on the 1st of February you forgot about at least half of it. Is there no point making new year’s resolution? Some people say it’s a waste of time to even think about it. I do not agree with that. Making plans to make your life better or more meaningful is always a good idea and using the power of the motivation you feel when a new year is starting is in my opinion very useful. Then how come that a lot of people fail? I think it’s because the only motivation there is was the start of the new year. As soon as the new year started, the motivation is gone. Also a lot of people don’t make a real plan to accomplish their goals, they only set goals and often the goals are too big.

To help you set your goals I will give you a few tips which hopefully help you succeed. First of all don’t set too many goals at the same time. Pick 3 for example. Not 10! Write them down and also write down why this is important to you. Then make a plan. Let’s make up 3 goals now, to help you visualise it:

-Live a healthy life / Lose weight.
-Be positive.
-Save money.

The start of your plan to live a healthy life could be: eating vegetables with every meal, to eat at least 3 pieces of fruit, to drink at least 2 L of water and to introduce your body to 15 min of exercise every day. These are very good first steps. You can start with 2 of these steps or you can start them all at the same time. It depends a little bit of what you are already doing at the moment. If you’re already doing some things, you could increase some of these steps. You could increase the 15 min of exercise to 30 min or you could increase your vegetable intake. When you eat more vegetables you can slowly decrease the less heathy things you eat/drink. You also don’t have to stop eating all unhealthy things. If you sometimes enjoy a piece of chocolate, you need to really enjoy it without guilt. And if you ate a little more than you should have, don’t feel guilty or start punishing yourself. By feeling good you will accomplish a lot more than by telling yourself you ruined it all. Be nice to yourself! If it goes really well, you’ll see that by increasing healthy food more and more, you will automatically decrease the bad stuff. You will also see that when you exercise regularly (even when it’s 30 min a day) you will feel less peckish, feel happier and feel more motivated. This is how it will turn into a lifestyle and that is what you want. Living a healthy life is not a diet or something that you do for only 2 months. Living a healthy life is forever, because you will benefit from it your whole life. When living a healthy life, you will also reach your ideal weight, have more energy and feel happier.

Learning to be more positive can be very hard, especially when you are a bit of a pessimist. Making this change in your brain takes a while, but it also requires a lot of willpower. I do think that the quality of life will increase a lot when you are more positive. The law of attraction! The trick of training yourself to be more positive is to be very conscious about your thoughts. Every time you think something negative you have to stop yourself and try to think something positive too. Or every time you are being negative about a situation you are in, you have to force yourself to see the positive side of it. Even if you’re in a very hard situation, I believe that everything is meant to be and that there is always something (even if it’s very small) you can be grateful for. Because this is something in your brain, it might help you to make it more visible. It’s very motivating to have something you can actually see/touch. You could get yourself a bracelet, something you will always wear. It doesn’t need to be an expensive bracelet, even a hairband will do. Every time you look at the bracelet it will remind you to be and stay positive. To take it a step further you could put the bracelet on the other arm every time you think something negative and leave it there for 10 minutes and before putting it back you should think of something positive. You just have to force your brains to not first think of the bad side. Especially in the beginning this will be very hard, but don’t get angry or frustrated with yourself. This will only work against you. Just keep going and you will see that after a few days already you will be better at it. Good luck!

Saving money is quite a practical goal, but it can be very tricky for a lot of people (I’m one of those people..). The first step it to budget and to know what comes in and what goes out. So make sure you know exactly what money goes where and what you have left in the end of the month. Simple example: fixed costs £900 / groceries £200 / other monthly expenses £100. (Tip: don’t make the budget of groceries and other expensive too tight, because then you might feel the need to take from your savings account in the end of the month.) So if £1200 is what you will spend every month and the money what comes is £1500, you should be left with £300. Simple maths. A lot of times it’s gone in the end of the month, even though you have no idea where you spend it on. This is the thing with money. How can you make sure you know where that money goes and to make sure you save it instead? You make a plan: 1- Write everything down. 2- Go to the bank and open a savings account. Just do it. 3- Make sure that every time your salary comes in, the bank automatically puts £300 in your savings account. This is the technical part. The hardest part is to stop yourself from buying clothes, food and other things you actually don’t need. Here is where the automatic transfer comes in handy. Because every time the bank puts £300 in your savings account, there will be only £1200 left and when that is finished, it’s finished. You have to think of the things you buy as you don’t want to be short when the month is finished. It might be helpful for you to write down everything you spend. You have to be very consistent with this though (what means writing down every cup of tea you buy for example). I do think that especially in the beginning (the first few months) this can really help you. It will give you a better overall view of where your money goes (quite interesting actually), it will make you more conscious of what things cost and of the unnecessary things you bought (so you will not do that again). Give it a try!

I hope this will help you to reach your goals in the new year and to live the happy life you deserve. If you need more help with this or when you have questions, you can always contact me via CONTACT. Good luck and I want to wish everybody an amazing 2017 with lots of happiness!

Did this inspire you to do it a little different this time, if it comes to New Year’s Resolutions? Do you have more tips to be successful this time? Please share this, with me and all the other readers, in the comments below or via Instagram using #PlanetManel. Thank you! X