Yogic January 2020_Digital Issue | Page 32

KARMA Making New Year RESOLUTIONS WORK M Here are three golden principles of how to making your new year resolutions work There are only 24 hours in a day. It is important to be reasonable with your expectations you set for yourself. 30 www.yogicherald.com Jan. 2020 any of us make new year resolutions with much gusto only to see them fizzle out within the first week itself. And, the interesting thing is that I don’t think it’s because we lack the willpower, most of us have plenty of it. Often, the reason is quite simple: either you’ve made too big a resolution straight up (for example, I will never smoke or drink again) or you’ve made too many resolutions. I’ll exercise 5 days per week, plus, I’ll learn how to paint, and I’ll meditate every day. I will also sleep on time and not binge-watch Netflix etc. Rather than making resolutions per se, I’d like to offer you a different approach that makes the best use of the two of your most valuable assets: mindfulness and motivation. If you are motivated and you are mindful of sticking to your discipline, half the job is done. Before, I spell out the details for you, here’s a little anecdote, slightly paraphrased from Die Empty by Todd Henry. A man asked a group of people, “What do you think is the most valuable land in the world?” Several people threw out guesses, such as Manhattan, the oil fields of the Middle East, and the gold mines of South Africa, before the questioner indicated that they were way off track.