The Year of . . .

Happy New Year!

This is your year. The year you stop trying to lose, eliminate, and quit. The year you stop trying to beat your body into submission. The year you start loving who you are and the life you’re living. The year you evolve into the best version of yourself. The year you become the person you were meant to be.

Last week I talked about having a mantra to use whenever negative thoughts spring to mind. This week I’m talking about something similar: having a yearly theme.

I got this concept from Ramit Sethi, a life coach who teaches you how to life a rich life. His philosophy about making resolutions is that it’s easier to organize them into a theme. This way, you don’t have to remember to work on five things at once — you can focus on one simple theme that incorporates all of them.

A lot of resolutions fall under a common theme. For example, if your resolutions are to eat 75% vegetarian, drink more water, and eliminate alcohol, your theme could be The Year of Living Clean.

Coming up with a theme sounds simple enough, but there are some ways to do it that make it way more effective. Here are some tips:

Use vivid wording. Write your theme in a way that kicks your brain into action and motivates you to actually do something. Make it exciting and fun — not boring and blah. Here are some examples:

• Boring: The Year of Eating Healthy. Better: The Year of Nutrient Overload
• Boring: The Year of Working Out. Better: The Year of Constant Movement
• Boring: The Year of Meditation. Better: The Year of Zen-ing Out
• Boring: The Year of Following Through. Better: The Year of Getting Sh*t Done

Phrase it in the positive. Anything that has a negative focus backfires. Words like not, won’t, or can’t make you feel and fearful and defeated — and therefore less likely to achieve your goals. You want to use words that make you feel hopeful and excited. So instead of The Year of Not Being Afraid, try The Year of Asserting Myself.

Write it down. Oh my gosh, I cannot stress this enough. There’s always the temptation to skip this step, because you think it’s too much trouble or not really necessary. Trust me, it is.

You imprint the phrase on your brain as soon as the words hit the page, and it’s even better if you hand write it rather than type it. Write it every morning while you have your coffee. Frame it and put it somewhere where you can see it every day. (I wanted to live by the words “Start Before You’re Ready,” so had a wooden plaque made with that phrase that’s hanging in my kitchen.)

Remember that you can have more than one theme. You can have one for physical improvement, for taking better care of yourself, for improving your work life, or for being a better mother/friend/partner — whatever!

One of my themes is The Year of Massive Productivity. Resolutions that fall under this theme are to check my email only twice a day, check Instagram once a day, work on my most important tasks first (instead of folding laundry and squaring off my kitchen before I start), and letting go of the things that truly don’t matter or are a total waste of time (editing my emails so that there aren’t extra spaces between words, cleaning up before my housekeeper gets here because I don’t want her to think we’re a pack of animals).

After you give it some thought, leave a comment and let me know what your theme will be this year. And don’t forget that a theme that’s seemingly non-weight-related will help you lose weight. Fix the inside first, and the outside will take care of itself.

So Happy 2019! This is your year, and it’s going to be amazing. 🙂