Your Magenta Monday Magic.
Happy New Year! 🎉
I’m all for celebrating the New Year, but I’ll confess that I do get tired of the usual January clichés: New Year, New You! Set your resolutions now! How to make 2024 the best year yet!
Don’t get me wrong – I do think the start of January is a great time to pause and reflect on the year gone by, to contemplate what worked, and to decide what I want more of in the year to come. I don’t like to focus too much on what didn’t work, because I don’t believe in expending energy there – I prefer to think about what I want to create more of, and I think the way to get there is through intention, rather than resolution. Of course if there were any behaviors or situations that didn’t serve me in 2023, I am eager to let them go.
For me, 2023 was a great year, and in 2024, I want to connect more, travel more, and laugh more. I want to fill up my cup, pour it into the people I love, and then fill it up again. I want to create, I want to push my edges, and I want to do things I’ve never done before. Those are my intentions, and they’re my focus as I start the New Year. 🤩
Why no resolutions? Well, simply put, I am not a fan of them, because I don’t believe that setting resolutions works.
In fact, the numbers back me up. Forbes Health did a study of 1000 American adults in October of 2023 and found that only 8% stick with their goal for one month. And by December? Only 1% report that they are still working on their goal for that year.
Think about how many times you’ve set a goal – the most popular ones are around health. In fact, the study reported that the #1 goal for 2024 is to ‘get fit’. Let’s suppose you start off saying ‘I am going to lose 20 pounds by March 1st,’ and maybe you start out great … You sign up for a gym membership, you go shopping for all kinds of healthy food, you plan your meals, and you work hard. You likely even achieve a little success – maybe you drop a pound or two.
But then, about 10 days in, you go to a party and fall off the wagon. After one too many pieces of cake you think to yourself ‘well, why stop now?’ and you add a scoop of ice cream as well. Feeling sluggish and discouraged the next day, you don’t make it to the gym – which leads to beating yourself up ... and reaching for a cookie or two to make yourself feel better.
And so it goes. 🤦♀️
Before you know it, March 1st has arrived. While you might have lost a couple of pounds, you haven’t come anywhere near your goal, and you feel like a failure … which leads back into the negative self-talk:
‘Ugh. I can’t even stick to a diet. What’s wrong with me? I’ll always be fat.’
Do you feel motivated at that point? Are you likely feeling good about yourself? And can you see a clear way to work yourself out of that hole?
Surely the most honest answer here is ‘NO’ – on all counts.
Monday Mindshift
It’s the 1° shift that makes the biggest difference over time.
The problem with resolutions is that they focus on an end goal rather than zeroing in on the process of getting to our desired result. When we make resolutions, we don’t break down what it’s actually going to look like to lose that 20 lbs: all the habits – the 1º steps – you need to implement in order to reach that goal.
And if you’re starting from scratch – where you don’t currently exercise at all, your vegetable intake currently consists of the lettuce that comes on a Big Mac, and you can’t remember the last time you sipped on a glass of water – you’re pretty much doomed to fail.
Okay, maybe I’m exaggerating a little here, but for many people, my description isn’t that far off.
Setting an unrealistic goal – like losing a significant amount of weight in a 2-month period – just doesn’t make any sense.
But what would happen if you flipped that script and rather than ‘resolving’ to lose weight, you decided to start prioritizing your health? 🤔
That might mean signing up for a gym membership, or starting to make regular use of the one you already have. Or maybe it would involve eating clean foods – more vegetables and whole grains – drinking more water or making sure you get enough sleep.
Do you see the difference?
When you focus on the bite-sized pieces – the 1ºshifts – rather than the larger goal, it becomes much more achievable. When you put your energy into moving mindfully through each step, before you know it, you are feeling better, you have more energy, and your jeans are fitting a little bit looser. 🤸♀️
It’s all about living with intention, and that’s what we’re going to focus on in our emails all month long.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll explore all the different ways there are to do this – how you can incorporate intention into your life. By the end of the month, you will have selected a word or a phrase that encompasses how you want your life to look and feel over the coming year. Not only that, but you will also build a realistic plan to get there – one that will allow you to get more of what you want in your life.
And rather than feeling defeated and like you’ve failed yet again, you will feel empowered.
How does that sound?
Seems like a pretty good place to start the year if you ask me! 🥳
Living BRIGHTer is...
B - Be Brave
R - Cultivate Relationships
I - Live with Intention
G - Practice Gratitude
H - Prioritize Health
T - Live your Truth
What is Magenta?
The color magenta is one of universal harmony and emotional balance. It is spiritual yet practical, encouraging common sense and a balanced outlook on life. Magenta helps to create harmony and balance in every aspect of life; physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.
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