5 minute read
New Beginnings
New
Beginnings
Advertisement
By Dr. Coleen Andruss, Healthy Lifestyles
Amazingly, it is that time again. A new year is approaching right on schedule. The New Year is one of the world’s oldest celebrated holidays. Since 2000 BC, society has commemorated New Year’s Eve, which started as an eleven-day festival. If you are struggling with one night of celebration, imagine eleven days!
Some think of the New Year’s holiday as an opportunity to dress up or attend a party, but it is much more than that. It is a significant holiday because it symbolizes a new start. We celebrate the end of the old year because it precedes a new beginning. No one can really go backwards and make a new start, but everyone can start now and make a brand new beginning.
This is the time of year when many of us start making resolutions in certain areas of our lives. These may range from simple desires to extensive life changes. We may want to say goodbye to old habits, problems, or difficulties. We may want to lose weight or become healthier. The beginning of a new year is the perfect time to leave things in the past and embrace changes and challenges.
The new year does not contain some kind of do-over magic, but because of the turn of the calendar, it inherently allows for a mental reset. Rather than create a resolution, start a new beginning. The best days of our lives have not even happened yet!
A new beginning can mean trying something that makes you happy, but it also can mean giving something up that makes you unhappy. What all of us have in common is the hope that something will change and that life will be different and better in the year ahead.
About the Author
Dr. Coleen Andruss practiced as an internist for ten years and has specialized in weight management for twenty-six years. She and her staff have personally experienced weight management issues and have a compassionate understanding of patients in the Healthy Lifestyles program. Dr. Andruss’s internal medicine background helps her to see underlying medical problems when formulating individual plans that work.
New beginnings allow you to put a plan in place and strategize on reaching an attainable goal using dedication and preparation. Realize that you will more than likely need a long-term action plan. While the beginning of the year is a perfect place to start, it does not mean that our plan of action has to be accomplished immediately.
Develop a road map, deadlines, a means of accountability, a support system, and a rewards system. Having these things in place will help you to persevere instead of reverting to your habitual behavior and lifestyle without making any changes or improvements. Most resolutions end with shame and remorse because of failed attempts at change. If you repeat this behavior, your subconscious mind is taught that you are a quitter and that you cannot expect much from yourself.
If you want to make real changes in your life, you need to take small steps that lead you toward the attainment of the larger goal. While it is pleasurable to dream big, to make your dreams come true, you will need to do more than daydream; you must act by moving in the direction of the changes you want to make, no matter how small your steps might be. Make wise resolutions based on common sense and facts and not emotional resolutions as sometimes these are impractical. Life is not about expecting, hoping, and wishing. It is about doing, being, and becoming.
New beginnings are a time to prioritize yourself by decreasing the stress in your life and targeting positivity and self-worth. Resolve to be happy and keep a positive mental attitude. Psychology studies reveal that those who experience success at reaching their goals are happy and optimistic and maintain a positive outlook. Will 2022 be a new chapter and verse or just the same old story? Ultimately the choice is yours. • Establish WELL-DEFINED GOALS or you may lose interest and stop what you started. Be specific about the changes you want to make and write them down. • Be self-disciplined and maintain PERSEVERANCE despite obstacles and difficulties. Do not listen to doubts and discouragements. Be structured enough to achieve success but flexible enough to remain creative and have fun. This is what separates a successful person from an unsuccessful person. • TAKE ACTION now—not tomorrow or next week. Another word for procrastination is never. You will never win if you never begin! • Leave your COMFORT ZONE. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone. Be brave. Take a leap of faith and believe in yourself. If you are brave enough to say goodbye to the old, life will reward you with a hello to the new.
