Is your New Year motivation dwindling yet?

This is absolutely normal because, for most of us mere mortals, motivation doesn’t remain high all the time!

And because people often don’t use any of the tried and tested ‘rules’ of habit formation when implementing the new behaviours they easily slip away when the going gets a little tough.

Most people tend to overestimate how long their motivation will last and make new behaviours far too hard to achieve consistently. The feeling of motivation can be very hard to maintain when you are struggling with everything going on in a 24 hour period and so this is where your strategy comes into its own.

If you don’t think strategically enough about where these new behaviours will fit into your daily life you are embarking upon a goal without really ensuring the changes are going to stick!

And if you don’t ensure you pace those changes to allow for integration then that’s another stumbling block you’ve unwittingly placed in your way…

When your motivation starts to wane (as it invariably does!) usually by the middle to end of January, you will only manage to keep doing your desired new behaviour if you have made it easy enough to do.

If it feels too hard, naturally we discard it and we’ll be able to justify that by saying that it isn’t realistic and actually change completely sucks and we don’t even really want the thing we said we did and look around at all the women around us perpetuating the same behaviour as a way of justifying our own!

SO we revert back to previous behaviours whilst also usually spending some energy and time making ourselves feel bad about failing!

This is why I am a huge fan of talking through your plans with someone who can see any potential pitfalls and give you a sense check.

This could be done with a friend, a family member, although let’s face it: it may be best done with an appropriately skilled and experienced pro who can offer some ongoing accountability, practical guidance, ensure appropriate pacing of goals, and offer a little stretch if and when appropriate.

And this is exactly why my new Commitment To Self Journey offers 1to1 support to ensure we’re planning your strategy and offering real integration of the changes you want for the long term.