Each New Year that God grants us is a New Opportunity to accomplish lots of things, complete some others and fix many others.
And do we really do the same every year? We start a New Year with several promises: “This year I will lose weight, eat healthy food”; “I’m going to the gym”; “I will take more care of my health”; “I will spend more time with my family and friends”;
It all seems quite natural, but the fact is that most New Year’s resolutions usually don’t last beyond the first few days of January.
In the beginning there is a whole determination regarding the new plans, which is lost as we return to our routine. Its starts to lack enough time, enough money, and our own energy. And there is a large part of humanity exactly like this. After all, it’s easy to have a new idea and a strong desire to change something about ourselves or our routine. And how about putting it into practice? This is the hardest part.
It is also inherent to us, to keep the hope, no matter how difficult the situation we go through. Therefore, we always hope that each new year will be better than the last one and that things will change for the better. Just like that! As the popular saying goes: “Hope dies last.”
BUT WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO CHANGE?
When we dream of a “better life”, a promotion at work, losing weight, a happy relationship, among others, our expectation is that this change will come from outside, we hope that fate, luck, God, the universe, our boss, take action for us, accomplishing what we so desire, practically as if by magic.
It can even happen, in certain situations, but it will not last long if there is not an internal change that accompanies this transformation.
An internal transformation requires looking inside, analysing reality and seeing what is bothering us. To do this, you need to get off the auto pilot of routine.
Maybe we can, if we really want to, but the truth is that our real motivation is to be lazy and do what we feel comfortable doing. Our natural state staying in our comfort zone.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO MAKE THE CHANGES WE WANT THEN?
The failure obtained when we try to change our habits is often not related to the fact that we are doing something wrong, instead we are just making a change in the wrong direction.
And to better understand which direction we should take for this change to happen, we need to understand the levels of our behaviour.
If we only focus on Results, on small Goals, we end up achieving a momentary change. We can achieve results by changing our actions, without this representing a change in our habits.
When we make the decision to create new Methods that allow us to consistently achieve the results we aim for, the change becomes more lasting and the results are not just a goal, they become a natural consequence of the method we’ve created.
But excellence is only achieved by changing our Identity – changing what we believe in – our vision of the world, our image of ourselves, the judgments we make, our convictions and our values. And this only happens when our habits are no longer just part of a process, but part of what we are and believe in.
Results have to do with what we have achieved. The Methods with what we do. Identity, with what we believe in.
“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristóteles
Alexandra Outeiro
HR Specialist
ABC Sustainable Luxury Hospitality
Proud Ambassadors Global Wellness Institute