Here we are into a new year, can you believe it — 2014 — Happy New Year!
New goals and new starts however often come with bag of mixed feelings! Of course positive feeling of hope, belief, possibilities are rarely the problem. We love them. What we tend to not love, however, are the doubts, worries and other fear-based emotions that can steal our good feelings and happiness.
How can we maintain our enthusiasm from start to finish?
When you follow your heart (instead of any fear or triggers), you can avoid the crippling effects of living life in survival mode; and you also find fear in small doses can be another asset towards your success.
Here are a few tips to maintain your enthusiasm.
1. Connect to your purpose for achieving each goal.
The fastest and most satisfying path to fulfill your goals is to not only clarify what you want, but also know your purpose. Your reasons dds the passion you need to carry you when you face obstacles or challenges along the way, which are also inevitable, by the way.
2. Imagine the feelings of having your desired outcome.
Just imagine the future outcome you want as clearly and vividly as possible. See the picture. Hear the sounds. Feel the positive feelings. Act as if you have already achieved it. Practice this a few moments, a few times each, especially at the start and end. Make sure these moments are enjoyable as possible. This stimulates the reward centers of the brain—to turn it into a new habit.
3. Celebrate your positive efforts, big or small.
Set an intention to celebrate every effort. Feel free to exaggerate and make this a big deal. This trains your brain to consciously enjoy learning “new” habits and letting go of old ones!
4. Use a journal to jot down daily celebrations.
For example you may write:
“I feel so happy and vibrant when I exercise.”
“It’s freeing to not worry about getting approval or what others are thinking.”
“I love how alive and great I feel after vigorous exercise.”
5. Feel your fears to understand them, as messages.
Feel your fears, and seek to understand them as action signals that inform your choices. Welcome and embrace what any fear is telling you about what is important to you, what you value. By the way, you’ve done this before in past situations. You have felt fear. You thought about running. You didn’t. Why? Your love in the situation kept you strong. You took action instead. As a result, you conquered or shrunk the fear down to size. Good work!
6. Identify healthy fears.
Some fear is reasonable, even healthy. It is good to fear jumping off a rooftop or eating unhealthy foods. It’s the kind that keeps you on your toes, awake to what keeps you alive and healthy. It helps you say “No” to going out so you can study for an upcoming test. It helps you prepare for that presentation to best deliver your message. In other words, it helps you do your very best. Reasonable fear is only a problem when it is mistaken or personalized as inadequacy, weakness, etc.
7. Talk back to unreasonable fear.
This fear is the scariest, most problem causing. It consists of existential or core fears, such as fear of rejection, inadequacy or unknown, and the like. They are unreasonable as they are not logical. It may hurt not to be liked or to make mistakes or not do as well as hoped, for example, it should not block or impair our daily functioning, however.
Emotions are caused by thinking patterns. To identify fear inducing thoughts, spend a day noticing your inner “self-talk.” List these in a journal. Next to each, give several reasons why the limiting belief is false. Then, list one or more energizing thoughts to replace these with in the future.
Are you ready to make a commitment to realize your New Year’s goals? It means taking 100% responsibility for your success, and getting comfortable with uncomfortable emotions.
Source: http://blogs.psychcentral.com/relationships/2014/01/7-ways-to-amp-up-the-love-calm-the-fear-and-reach-for-the-stars-in-new-year-2014/