5 Simple Steps To Achieve Your New Year's Resolutions • Nomads With A Purpose

New Year’s Day is one of my favorite days of the year. I love how it represents a restart, a chance to be better, new intentions, new motivations, letting go of the old and welcoming in all sorts of possibilities. New Year’s resolutions, whether they are kept or not, are a wonderful way to hone in on desire and focus your attention on what your intentions are, what gives you purpose, and what makes you feel fulfilled.

Instead of forcing a new exercise routine or eating food you don’t enjoy, try changing your perspective and use an approach to New Year’s resolutions that better aligns with your true self and raising your internal vibrations.

Our family always gets together on New Year’s eve to create vision boards that represent who we are trying to become. While New Year’s resolutions are good in theory, they often bury the true feelings we are striving for in life and don’t always focus on our greater intentions.

As you start the New Year, or any day for that matter, start with these five simple steps to help your New Year’s resolutions become a reality this year.

1. Own Your Weirdness

I’m a black sheep. I’m weird. I don’t fit a mold. But that’s okay, because we are all weird in our own way, right?! And most of the time, New year’s resolutions are about getting more in touch with what makes us unique, special, and the best version of ourselves.

For me, I live for trifecta days. These are days when I get to do three sports in one day. Sometimes my trifecta days involve surfing with my daughter, running with my husband, and then going to yoga all by myself. Some days my trifecta involves all my kids going rock climbing with me after an early morning bike ride alone with just my thoughts and the early morning sunshine, then finishing the day off with a walk on the beach at sunset. I love bonding with my family while we play together, but I also enjoy my hour of alone time. Part of my weirdness is that I need a little time in silence to refuel myself (otherwise I become really grumpy).

What gets you to jump out of bed and excited to start your day? Whatever it is, make part of your New Year’s resolution to DO IT MORE.

Rifugio Bonatti on Tour du Mont Blanc, Italy

2. Create Balance

Most New Years resolutions revolve around creating more balance. Eat better, exercise more, drink less. All things I too am constantly struggling to achieve. It’s normal to be drawn to things that are fast, fun, and give us instant gratification and in order to create balance, we have to do boring things like make plans, get organized, and sometimes say no even though we really, really, really want to hit the brewery after work.

I have no willpower but am quite disciplined. For every yang, I try to add a yin. Meaning I won’t skip my glass of wine at night, but I also eat lots of greens, probiotic foods, well sourced protein, and lots of healthy fats. I surf or climb hard and then force myself to yoga a few times a week even though it’s slow and sometimes boring.

Instead of depriving yourself this New Year, just add a little more of the good stuff.

3. Raise Your Vibration

Maybe you know exactly what your weirdness is and you know the balance you are trying to create but it just never seems to happen. Then it’s time to raise your vibration. Want it more, create more motivation, find a bigger why.

If it’s important to you, you’ll find a way. If not, you’ll find an excuse.
-Ryan Blair

So before you add something to that New Years resolution list, make sure it matters enough. And if it does, make it happen.

Write yourself notes and put them where you can see them often
Set alerts on your phone
Have a friend hold you accountable
Throw money on it
Make a big change (new job, new city, new friends)

Most importantly…Make a plan. You may need to modify it as the months go by, but without a plan, you’re likely to fail.

4. Get Real

Besides being important to you, it needs to be realistic. If you’re thinking Maybe I’ll only hit the brewery every other Wednesday on a full moon after I’ve done three sets of push ups… It ain’t gonna happen.

I don’t know about you, but my life is B-U-S-Y! I have no idea where the time goes some days, but it’s a flyin’ by. So for me, I have to have easy hacks that I can incorporate into my busy lifestyle.

Simple things like:

Buy more veggies at the grocery store
Put an organic chicken or grass-fed beef roast in the crockpot before I leave the house in the morning.
Eat more avocados, walnuts, and nut butter. Healthy fat is super good for you!
Do 15 minutes of exercise first thing in the morning.
Go to yoga once a week.
Breathe deeper and slower

5. Play More

Play is awesome. Why wouldn’t you want to play more? Play makes you feel alive, gives you a zest for life, helps you raise happy and healthy kids, and is fun (duh). Make one of your New Year’s resolutions to play more and it will be easier to follow though with your goal.

We die when we stop living.
-Doc Paskowitz

You don’t have to surf, bike, climb, or hike like we do, but I guarantee when you do those things, you know you are alive. Find activities that help you escape the robotic or mundane movements that a life built around routine and responsibility tends to create.

Going to the gym or doing cardio are important parts of health and fitness, but think of them as more of a means to an end, not the big picture.

Find sports and movement-based hobbies that allow you to focus on skill attainment and experiences and less about target heart rates or body composition.

Surfing Law Street, Pacific Beach, San Diego

You’ve Got This!

The best part of New Year’s resolution is when they actually come to fruition. Imagine how rad it would be if everything you are wishing and hoping you can achieve in the next 365 days actually came true. You lost those ten pounds, you got that raise, you started that business you’ve been dreaming of, you check another destination off your travel bucket list, you connected with your spouse often, your kids work hard, listen, and are actually a blast to hang out with.

You can and you will.

Stay in touch with your weirdness and never lose sight of what matters to you. When you can live a life aligned with your values and filter through the conditioned responses or excuses, your life moves from I have to… to I want to… to I get to. New Year’s Day becomes a celebration of a life well lived and an opportunity to discover new possibilities you never thought were possible.

And that’s where the magic begins.

Simple Steps To Help You Finally Achieve Your New Year's Resolutions This Year

We Can Help You Truly Thrive

Did you like this blog? Check out our blog on The Beginner’s Guide To Chakras! We find the chakras to be a super helpful tool to becoming more powerful, passionate, and productive and would love to share what we’ve learned!

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