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New Year’s Resolutions: How To Keep Them

By Coach Colleen | January 2, 2009

Hello and Happy New Year,

Have you ever in all ernestness created a New Year’s Resolution and abandoned it within a few weeks? Well, I have.

Because I learn by doing, I’ve created a very physical way to keep my New Year’s Resolutions. If I just think them in my head, that’s where they stay. I’ve combined ideas from very different sources to make this process one that works for me.

It works for me

It works for me and I hope it works for you too. I’m already using it to get in good enough condition to ‘comfortably’ do a two-week trek in Africa in September.

Step 1. Take a blank sheet of paper. Fold it in half the long way.
Step 2. Open the page up and write your resolution on the top of each side of the fold.
Step 3. On the left side underneath your resolution, write your name and the date. On the right side underneath your resolution, write the word ‘Universe’ and the date.
Step 4. Turn the paper over and write your resolution at the top, center of the page.
Step 5. Break down your resolution into the main steps you will have to accomplish to achieve your resolution. If these steps seem daunting, you can create sub-steps or tasks.
Use the paper however you like – listing or mind mapping. It’s just a worksheet, so do what works for you.
Step 6. Look at each step or sub-step and decide if it belongs to you or to the Universe. Transfer each step from your worksheet to either your side or the Universe’s side on the front of your paper.

One way to decide where to put it is to notice if it’s a big deal step or something you’ve tried before and did not succeed at. If you need to break it down into smaller tasks to make it manageable, go ahead. Sometimes, no matter how small I make each task it still seems so overwhelming that I don’t even know where to begin. These I give to the universe. I know I need help when I don’t know how to do it.

If you know the Serenity Prayer (included at the end), put the things you cannot change on the Universe’s side and the things you can on yours.

Here’s an example from my list from January 2006. Most I’ve accomplished. Concrete steps like buying healthy food, I list under my side. Actually wanting to eat healthy food rather than fast food, I put under the Universe’s side. Here’s a peak at my list:

LEFT SIDE
Get in good enough condition to comfortably do a 2-week trek in Africa

    Colleen

1/03/06
- I always have healthy food in the house and with me.
- I get my orthotics redone
- I take the T-Th Pilates class

RIGHT SIDE
Get in good enough condition to comfortably do a 2-week trek in Africa.

    Universe

1/3/06
-I WANT to workout.
-I WANT to eat according to the food plan that will work for me.
-I manage my cravings without emotional hardship

See the results as of 1/2/09 at the end.

Step 7. Now it’s time to acknowledge what is yours to do and release what is the Universe’s to do for you. You do that by tearing or cutting your paper along the center fold. I so like the physical part of this process.
Step 8. Put the part you are going to do in a convenient place so you can refer to it as you like. Put the Universe’s part in a container (an envelop works great) and put it in a safe, out-of-the-way place.
Do not refer to it or take it back. You’ve given it to the Universe, to handle.
Step 9. It’s okay to refine your list. If you realize that you kept too much on your side of the Resolution List (which often happens), you can chose to place it with the Universe by writing the step you want the Universe to take care of on a piece of paper and placing it with your original Resolution List.

Don’t take it back
If you are tempted to take back a task you assigned to the Universe’s side, don’t.

If a task or item on your Universe List does not come to fruition within a reasonable period of time, it often indicates that you haven’t totally and completely let go of that particular one. You didn’t really give it to the Universe.

Sometimes, I would have sworn, I’d given a step to the Universe only to realize that I had put some conditions on it. Remember, I like physical processes to help me embody my thoughts. So, I’ve actually taken scissors (or mimicked scissors with my hand) and cut the imaginary, invisible strings as a symbol to myself and the Universe that I’ve let go and am trusting in the Universe.
Another thought that comes up for me is that I didn’t do my side. If this happens to you, review your side of your Resolution List and give more of the responsibility to the Universe. In this way you are actually allowing the Universe to be ‘on your side.’

How did it work for you? Got a good story to share?

This is an incredibly powerful technique. I would love to hear how it works for you. You can send me your stories.

Thanks and credits
Thanks to ‘Ask and It is Given’ for the two-list technique and to the clarity of the Serenity Prayer written by Reinhold Neibuhr’s in 1926. I’ve included a modified portion of the Serenity Prayer for those who may not know it.
GOD, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.

THE RESULTS as of 1/2/09
- I went to Africa and had a great time and was phyically able to easily hike up hill to the elephant salt caves. I as far up and into the caves as you could go. (It was during the day when the elephants were not around, but out guides kept looking around.)
- I have been working out 2 times a week for over a year.
- I did get new orthotics which is really helping my softball knees.
- I took pilates for several months and discovered it was not for me.
- I’m eating healthy. Last night I had fresh greens, squash and chicken. What’s even better, I enjoyed it.
- I’m still asking the Universe to keep helping with emotional cravings.

Coach Colleen
The True Love Coach
At last a science based system that combines your thinking and feeling brains (thoughts and emotions) to attract YOUR true love.
Learn how to invoke the Law of Attraction with such clarity that nothing can keep you from finding true love.

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