Get Your New Year’s Resolutions Back on Track

aerial view of calendar with new year and post-its and markers — Hate to point this out, but remember the New Year’s resolution you made a few weeks back? Well, chances are, you’ve fallen off track already. Don’t feel too bad — according to U.S. News, approximately 80 percent of resolutions fail by the second week of February. Ahead you’re going to learn how to shift your resolution focus in order to get back — or stay — on track, but first we want to give you the opportunity right now to make a resolution you can keep in just a few moments, and that is to help support our veterans. You can do that simply by CLICKING HERE and scheduling a free donation pickup of your gently used and no longer needed clothes, household items, and more. Go ahead, we’ll be ready for you when you return here!

The calendar says the New Year’s still an infant, full of promise and potential, and every year brings an opportunity to achieve, learn, and grow. That’s why the tradition is to make a New Year’s resolution, as opposed to something like a February 23rd resolution! As the holidays started to wind down, we looked back on the past and said it’s time to stop doing this or time to start doing that in the future. Well, that future has arrived, but if you’re among that 80 percent or so of folks who’ve lost the will to keep a resolution, ahead you’ll learn how taking a minimalist approach can help make sure this year’s potential is reached.

Instead of resolutions, it’s time to make realizations. Rather than resolving to do or to stop doing something, a better path to maximizing the potential of the New Year is to realize what you really value and want in life.

In alignment with the minimalism movement lies the concept of realization. Realization brings awareness, understanding, and consciousness to our lives. It is the process of truly defining what is of value. The minimalist approach to life asks that we really look at what makes us happy and take steps towards making what we want a reality.

open book calendar with hand written notes

One of the main reasons why resolutions do not succeed beyond six weeks is due to a weak planning process. We often turn to an imaginary list of behaviors we want to stop, or ones we want to start, as our goals. We hit the gym, buy hardcover books, find a yoga center, and enroll in continuing education classes. But did we ever stop to realize what we are really searching for? The mindfulness and minimalism movements ask that we first consider what provides us a sense of fulfillment, peace, and well-being. By starting here we can make small, permanent changes in our lives that will have tremendous positive impact over time. We may say we want to lose weight, but what we really desire is to feel healthier, enjoy life more, and have higher self-esteem. Thus by shifting your focus from a resolution to lose weight onto a realization that you can eat healthy, you can get your year back on track.

You may find it helpful to turn to the mindfulness and minimalism movements to aid you in converting your wavering resolution into a successful realization. Advice from these movements include:

Being Mindful Supports a Satisfied, Calmer Life

Turning resolutions into life-long realizations spring from a practice that’s quickly growing in popularity. Mindfulness, or the finding of self-realization, is now practiced by therapists as well as the religious, medical, and business communities, while meditation apps are getting loaded onto smartphones more than ever before. The practices ask that we get off the treadmill of our busy, hectic lives and simply be still for a moment, without distraction, on a daily basis. In these moments we are able to determine what we really want from life.

Mindfulness as a practice has proved to have lasting benefits such as clearer thinking processes, healthier immune systems, and improved ability to concentrate. Think for a moment about why you may have fallen short of achieving your resolutions. Perhaps you lost motivation for the resolution, or you didn’t have the energy to make the needed lifestyle changes. Often it is the hectic, stressful nature of our lives that pulls us away from achieving our goals. According to experts, mindfulness or self-realization practice will provide greater ability to think through what we want to change, and the focus and energy needed to carry those changes out.

Happiness Does Not Come From Things, It Comes From People

One of the most common New Year’s resolutions is, “I want to be happy.” The minimalist movement believes the more we focus on our relationships with other people instead of the accumulation of possessions, the happier we will all be. We seem to wake up after the New Year with a realization that it’s time to declutter, organize, and donate. Having the realization that too much stuff is a burden more than a source of happiness is a great way to ensure a greater sense of happiness as the year moves on. Donating your stuff to support others in need is the perfect place to find true happiness. Turning your New Year’s resolution to be happier into a realization that you can bring happiness to others will help make your year the best it can be.

aerial view of notebook with pencils next to it and pink flowers

Minimizing Mental and Physical Clutter Opens a Door to Happiness

The mindfulness movement helps us to realize how we can eliminate mental clutter. The minimalist movement helps us to realize how to eliminate our physical clutter. Mental and physical clutter are what slows us down, holds us back, and gets in between where we are and where we want to be. Realizing that you need to declutter your physical things can help get your mental goals back on track and ensure 2018 with be your best year ever.

Are you ready to put down your resolution and pick up some realizations for 2018? Take a moment and think about what you truly want in the coming months. Being healthier, spending time with family and friends, enjoying new experiences, giving to others, and achieving happiness are a great place to start.

We have the perfect place for you to kick your new found realizations into gear, and that is by donating your unneeded household items to the Vietnam Veterans of America. The VVA has been helping veterans and their families for decades. Your donations help support people in your community who are seeking the same things you are in the New Year. Your support brings happiness to both you and to others. Scheduling your free pick up couldn’t be easier; all you have to do to get started is CLICK HERE!

The reasons your resolutions fail are varied but even broken resolutions can prove to be useful when you’re someone who takes time to think about and set resolutions, and who truly desires something better for themselves in the coming year. That same person continues to want something better, even after they have stopped achieving their full resolution — that desire to personally improve and the will to accomplish healthy goals continues with you. If this describes you or someone you’d want to be, you’re now in a great place to maximize your realizations!

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