A new year brings new possibilities, new choices and new hope for the future. That’s why we tend to think about lifestyle changes in the New Year. Here are some tips to help you actually keep your New Years Resolutions you make this year…

 1. KEEP IT SIMPLE SWEETIE.

Apply the KISS principle so you don’t get carried away with setting down a resolution you have no chance of fulfilling. Keep your resolutions simple so you can achieve them.

2. Be choosy

Agreeing to a New Year’s Resolution just because someone told you that you should is setting yourself up for failure. Instead, think about what you really want to change and your chances for success are much greater.

3. Set realistic goals

Sure, you want to lose 25 pounds in a week, but it is an unrealistic expectation. Realistically look at what you can actually strive to achieve within the timeframe and set these milestones in place.

4. Tell People Your plans

Tell friends and family about your New Year’s Resolution. Broadcast your plans and goals to others as a way of helping firm up your decisions in your own mind. Doing so tends to help you stay accountable too.

5. Educate yourself

Talk to others and research in order to learn how others have successfully made the change you desire. This will help you to avoid pitfalls and build realistic expectations.

6. Avoid the same ol’ resolutions

If you’ve resolved to lose 10 pounds year after year, well I would say it’s high time you made a different resolution. Instead, maybe make a decision to exercise three times a week. This may well help you accomplish the same results, but it frames your lifestyle change a little differently.

7. Break your resolution into achievable tasks

Rather than focusing on one big life-altering change, choose to focus on r smaller, more attainable changes that you can track and accomplish more easily.

8. Develop Your action plan

Once you have determined the steps you need to take to fulfill your resolution, decide your plan of attack, what it is you will do first. Then do it!

9. Don’t expect overnight results

Habits and behaviors take at least 30 days to form, so you must be patient and expect gradual, rather than immediate, results.

10. Don’t get stressed!

Change, even when for the better, can be stressful. We are all creatures of habit and stepping out of our comfort zones can create anxiety, so try not to allow stress to get the better of you.

11. Find an accountability partner

Having a friend or family member who will hold you accountable for your actions is vital. Ask someone you trust if they will support you to stay on track.

12. Obtain support from others

It doesn’t matter what change you wish to make there will undoubtedly be a support group to support it.  Search for one in your community to help you reach your goals.

 13. Let your enthusiasm show!

Look at the changes you’re making as an adventure, and approach with enthusiasm and zest. Visualize how you will feel when you’ve reached your goal. The journey can be as much fun as the destination!

 14. Look at the pros and cons of your decision

Be prepared for both the positive and negative outcomes of your decision so there are no surprises.

 15. Be prepared for setbacks

Honestly there will be days when your good intentions fly out the window and you return to old habits. Don’t give up!   It’s like riding a horse, when you fall, get back on the horse again and keep going.

 16. Prepare in advance

Give your subconscious sufficient time to adjust to the change so it doesn’t come as such a shock to your system. You’re more likely to succeed when you prepare in advance.

 17. Reward yourself!

Look for appropriate ways to reward yourself after every milestone is achieved. This will build momentum because you will be looking forward to the next reward.

 18. Set a deadline

Set yourself a timeframe in which to achieve your desired goal.

Give yourself plenty of time to realistically reach your goal, but plan for a specific end date to work toward.

 19. Set a limit

Too often we make too many New Year’s Resolutions that we have no hope of achieving. Just work on one or two resolutions at a time. This will help you to focus without feeling overwhelmed.

 20. Track your progress

This works especially well when you split your resolution into small, manageable tasks. Create a chart of your progress so you can see exactly how far you’ve come with each step you’ve taken.

21. Use positive self-talk

Tell yourself that you can achieve your goals and that you will succeed regardless of setbacks. When you do this, you’ll begin to both consciously and subconsciously believe in yourself.

 22. Write Out your resolutions

Writing your goals and desires on paper has a strong affect on your psyche. It firms up your intentions and helps you focus more clearly. Take the time to write down your goals, step-by-step, to best achieve your resolutions.

 23. Visualize the results

Imagine yourself after you’ve achieve your goal. What do you look like? How do you feel ? Spend a few minutes every day visualizing your success and you’ll be amazed at how much quicker and easier your goals will be to accomplish!

 24. Make the choice

You’ve talked about the change. You’ve made the resolution. Now firmly decide that will you stick with it —even when it’s not comfortable or convenient. You can do it if you choose to!

 25. Hang in there. never give up!

The going may, indeed, get tough. You may have discouraging days. You may feel like quitting. But if you’ve made the conscious decision to change, keep plugging away!

 By applying these strategies to your New Years Resolution, you will give yourself a great start to a wonderful New Year. May your New Year be filled with happiness, love, and the change you desire!

Many people go on diets sporadically. They will decide that it is time to lose weight, and jump onto the latest fad diet. These diets can be effective, but they do not offer long term results. If you want to maintain proper health you need to eat right all of the time. Here are some tips to make your daily eating habits more effective.

Calorie counting. Daily diets will usually be based on some form of calorie intake. If you are looking to lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you take in. As a general rule, you can multiply your weight, to get your average calorie count. For example, if you weigh 150 pounds, eating 1500 calories a day will help you to maintain you weight. If you want to lose weight, you need to eat less than that.


But daily diets are not all about losing weight, they are about eating healthy and maintaining good health. You need to eat fruit and vegetables every day. Fruits and vegetables contain the vitamins that our bodies need to grow. If we do not eat fruits and vegetables we might not get the nutrition that we need. It is a good idea to have fruits and vegetables at every meal. You may find this hard at first, but getting some color into your meals is a very good thing.

Another tip for daily diets is to eat many small meals a day, instead of eating two or three big meals. Most people say that 6 small meals a day will be beneficial for you. Eating multiple meals will keep your metabolism working  all day. It will also help you not to binge eat which you might do if you only eat one or two meals a day.

By MaryAnn Roche

Tags: diet, Diet Tips, dieting

They can be an ominous sounding four words but they need not be. It is natural and prudent to fear failure for the success of any enterprise or personal goal and to weigh the pro and cons in the beginning.

This is done everyday by ordinary people and only the foolhardy would neglect doing it.  But having a Fear of Failure Mindset that paralyses our will to try and achieve goals that we would like to achieve is something different and something that we should try to overcome.

Most goals are achieved little by little.

Remember from small things big things grow. So start small.  Set the goal in your mind and ask yourself where do I start?  Beginning is a small step, so take it and follow it up with more small steps and you may find ” That did not work ” and you might be tempted to think you have failed – but that is jumping to the wrong conclusion. All you have done is something that has not brought the desired result in the small step towards the ultimate goal.

Simply you have made a mistake. But dont let it dishearten you,  perhaps seek advice and try another approach.  If that still does not work then another until the best course of action is arrived at to achieve your goal.

These things are not failure but just little mistakes that you make along the way. Determination is the best attribute for a person wanting to achieve success. Determination not to give in easily in the pursuit of your goal and be frustrated and disheartened by the small mistakes you will make along the way.

Goals are achieved by determination not to let little set backs frustrate and deter you but  to ” Try Try Again”. You will find your confidence growing as each little step is achieved.  You will also find that other goals can be achieved as you are pursuing your main goal.

Rememberto try and have that will, that determination, that will take you a long way along the road to success.

By Michael Roche. (aged 87 years)

Shyness or social phobia can be an unrewarding state we can all fall into at different times and stages of our lives and the condition can become worse if we do not recognise it and do something about it.

We all have to face different cicumstances and people and places as we journey through life and letting shyness or social phobia have too big an input will only lower your self esteem and affect your enjoyment of what could otherwise be a rewarding experience.

So we see shyness can occur at all stages of life but ones first experience of it can be when you are young. Todays youngsters on the whole are less liable to be shy than those of yesteryear but it can and does still occur.

What to do when first you become aware of it.

Resolve first of all to tackle the problem.

Then ascertain whether it is people or places that are the the problem. If people,you must resolve to make an effort to meet and greet them with politeness and friendliness.

Inquire after their health and try to find out what they are most interested in.

Most people being generally selfish are most interested in themselves and like to talk about themselves.

So be a good listener and try to be genuinely interested in their life story. Should your endeavours be rebuffed or ignored do not let it worry you because it will be the exception and if there is a gathering of people you will have no difficulty finding someone to converse with along the lines previously mentioned. 

Your self confidence and esteem will rise and your shyness will tend to evaporate. If you are shy about going to places and events your efforts to overcome this shyness will be  rewarded. Do not worry about any rudeness you may encounter because it will only show the perpetrater to be less a person than you and it should be used to bolster your confidence rather than undermine your self esteem.

 Should you feel shy and reluctant to go to places or events that you have not been to before once again you must summon the effort/resolve required and make yourself go.You will discver that it is not as bad as you feared and you can enjoy the surrondings and people and your shyness will be virtually overcome.

Overcoming shyness or social phobia takes time and to be honest a lot of practise.  Putting yourself out there when asked to attend a function or drinks after work, whatever it may be, will become easier the more often you do it.  Think about the people you may meet before you attend a particular function, what do these people have in common, perhaps pick one or two people to talk to that you recognize as talkers rather than listeners.  I am including a link to a great audio pack that can really help you understand your shyness and how it affects you socially, and teach you the strategies to overcome it and enjoy your life.  Purchase your copy of “Overoming Social Anxiety and Shyness “here.

By Michael Joseph Roche aged 87 years.

Tags: anxiety, overcoming anxiety, overcoming shyness, shyness

Public speaking tends to freak a lot of us out and I am certainly no exception.  The thought of having to get up in front of an audience to make a speech is enough for me to be paralized by fear. The fear of public speaking can cause enormous stress to some individuals and since they are completely overcome by fear at the time it becomes difficult to focus on the speech and its delivery. 
Fear of public speaking is quite common, however if you can break it down and approach it like you would do an everyday conversation this may help.  Of course it is easier said than done when you look up and 500 people are looking back at you!

Paralized by Fear

For me personally when I reach the podium and turn the microphone on from that point on I see not much more than a black canvas in front of me. I can feel the sensation welling up inside my throat knowing that I must soon speak. Like many of us I am a perfectionist, and put considerable emphasis on delivering the perfect speech. In a way that is a double edged sword for someone with a fear of public speaking in that it is the very thing that causes the fear in the first instance, and secondly it is the very thing that the audience is looking for!

When making a speech I tend to experience all the thoughts like “what if people hate my speech and begin leaving”, what if I simply cannot speak in a fluent manner, what if something goes wrong with my slide presentation and I have to wing it?

Focus is the Key

All of these feelings cause enormous anxiety making it very difficult to deliver an effective and memorable speech.  Perhaps the key is to try to actually focus on sharing your knowledge with the audience, after all that’s what they came for!  Forget if you can, about flawlessly delivering your speech but rather, focus on the value the audience can actually get from the content delivery.  Forget about impressing them but focus on delivering to them the information you know they want to gain.  Perhaps this focus, will help you to overcome your fear of public speaking.

Communicate the topic effectively to your audience so you can see by their faces that they are receiving the information they came for.  In focusing to this degree, the nervous or anxious feelings tend to be held at bay.

Preparation

Therefore always study your subject matter thoroughly beforehand so you feel confident when it comes time to deliver this information.  Practise and refine your speaking, pausing at the correct moments and speaking slowly and effectively.  Ensure your presentation materials are prepared correctly so as to aid you in delivering your address in an effective manner.

Visualize yourself already speaking in public

Lastly as Im sure many of my readers know by now, I am a great believer in the art of meditation and visualization.  Meditate an hour or so prior to delivery of your speech and visualize yourself speaking in front of the audience.  See yourself speaking clearly and with confidence to your audience.  Think about how you are feeling when you do this, do you feel good about yourself?  Are you feeling relaxed about it?

These are my thoughts on how to overcome your fear of public speaking, from a fellow sufferer.  I have practised what I preach and can say that over time my fear of public speaking has reduced somewhat and continues to do so if I follow my own advice.

By Maryann Roche

Tags: fear of public speaking, overcoming fear, public speaking anxiety