We all know the concept of a New Year’s resolution, maybe you’ve already made a few in your life or currently have one (or a few) lined up for this year. In theory, the idea of a New Year’s resolution is wonderful: “new year, new me” is a great sentiment, but it often only lasts a few months.
The problem with setting a rigid resolution for this year is that as humans we are constantly evolving: both on an individual and societal level. We cannot fully comprehend the challenges or changes that lie ahead. To get the most out of any resolution, like a New Year’s resolution, we need to let it evolve with us. That’s exactly what we’re going to explore today!
A psychological shift
If psychic shifting (also known as psychic change) is a term you’re not familiar with, don’t worry. We’ll explore the concept now because it’s an essential part of why and how we let our resolutions evolve with us throughout the year. A psychic shift refers to our ability to change our thought processes (both in a mental and spiritual sense) to enable positive change.
Psychological change is a term most often found within recovery groups or life support programs. It is perhaps the most important step in any form of recovery or self-improvement. Once we learn to stop any negative behavior, we must have a positive behavior to replace it with. Adjusting our situation from one of negativity to one of positivity is a psychological shift. It is when you learn how to change your attitude towards situational variables.
An example
Allow me to give an example: imagine you are addicted to television. You take all necessary measures to ensure that you can no longer watch it. You put away your TV, you delete all apps on your phone and you block certain websites on your laptop. You have made major changes in your home, but you have not made a significant shift change.
What do you do in this scenario when you go to a friend’s house and their TV is on? Would you have trouble keeping your attention on them and not on the television? Would you be lured in no matter what show was on?
A psychic shift refers to changing your attitude toward any situation, rather than just one situation. With this example, you would change the way you watch television instead of changing your access to it. Hopefully you now have a better understanding of what a psychological change is. Before we delve deeper into how to create and enable psychological change, we need to discuss the potential pitfalls of an evolving solution.
The traps
The reason many people make New Year’s resolutions (and in such a rigid way) is that they can’t change their minds during the year. Many people make unrealistic resolutions, such as going to the gym six times a week or not eating junk food. While these options are possible, they are not realistic and once they fail it is often a reason to give up.
By evolving your resolution, for example changing your gym visits weekly or eating junk food only on special occasions, you can achieve a more positive and realistic outcome. What is better: making a strict and rigid decision at the beginning of the year, but failing after a few months and returning to your negative behavior, or giving yourself some breathing room with an evolving decision that you can maintain throughout the year?
The catch here is this: you can’t allow your resolution to change simply because you’ve become lazy. Looking at the gym example from earlier, you need to be careful not to cut out gym days just out of laziness. If you were injured or had to do fewer days this month but more next month, that’s perfectly acceptable. Don’t let your resolution become completely meaningless.
Creating a psychic change through resolutions
So how can you create a psychic shift while keeping a resolution? A psychic shift is a truly individual experience. No one can force you to experience one, they may not even be able to guide you to one. Instead, you must allow your own mindset and mind to lead you to the epiphany: that light bulb moment when your perception changes.
With regard to New Year’s resolutions, this psychological shift usually occurs in one way. You have to realize that any resolution is not actually about sticking to a rigid and often last-minute solution. If you’re not currently reading any books at all and your resolution is to read eight books a month, wouldn’t four books still be a big improvement?
The psychic shift is not about adhering to the resolution, but about exploring the resolution to discover the real purpose behind it. You don’t really need to read 8 books a month. If you read at least one book per month, you will still read many more books per year than before.
Evolving resolutions
Again, it’s important to avoid being lazy. Allowing your resolve to evolve is one thing, but allowing yourself to be lazy is another. Understand and remember that self-improvement is still your main goal (provided your decision concerns an aspect of self-improvement).
A simple technique you can use to encourage and enable psychic shifts are resolution checks. This could be something as simple as making a mid-year decision or even a quarterly decision. Some people even go so far as to update their resolution monthly to account for any major changes in their lives, such as a new job or the birth of a child. You want to push yourself, but not so much that you crash and burn!
