I know it is a polite practice to wish your relatives, friends & business partners a tremendous year at the beginning of every New Year.  So let me start by wishing you, my readers, all the best and even more in the 366 days of 2016. Indeed, I am specifically referring to the days of this year, because I would love to be part of your life in the coming period. I would love to have some impact at some point so we can develop a sustainable relationship over this period and I will be able to wish and provide you even more and better things next year…

I was wondering if I would actually do a New Years Wish post as according to my statistics, I only have a couple of dozen readers at the moment, which I probably all
know personally, lol. But I decided to do so merely because the resolution I wanted to share are based on the ones I made personally at the beginning of last year. So on with New Years Resolutions…

I would like to start of with the first one:

1. Act with positive intention and attitude. In my experience, having a positive mindset allows me to have a clearer and more open mind towards my surroundings and enables me to see more possibilities. It makes me more confident and more resilient. It wears of on to my clients and peers and it encourages altering their behavior towards me in an upwards positive vibe as well. Does this mean I am constantly running around with a smile on my face from cheek to cheek? Of course not, it is simply the way I handle my internal thoughts, even the negative ones, and divert them to a more constructive internal dialogue. I will surely come back to this technique in a future post, because it is definitely an easy skill I can advice everybody to master. If not, please feel free to remind me…In the mean time embed this New Years resolution in your daily routine.
2. You got to move it!  Most of us are sitting down in front of a computer on a desk or we have a job which requires lots of sitting and/or the same repetitive “movements” or handling. It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that this has an impact on your bones and muscles all over your body. It is advisable to remind yourself to stand up and stretch a bit, or just have a 5 minutes break to walk around. There are even apps you can install on your smartphone that remind you of the timings and even give you directions on what to do to avoid developing health problems over time. In this article, Jack Wallen sums a couple of them and they are even for free!! You should check them out. Apart from the above “exercises” you should develop the habit to have an average of 10.000 steps a day. These days a pedometer is very inexpensive, it wil only cost you a couple of dollars. You can find an example of an inexpensive Pedometer here. If you would require more functionality and motivation, there are more sophisticated devices which  give you much more information as there are, floors climbed, calories burned, sleep behavior like the Fitbit or the even more comprehensive Apple Watch. These devices often prove to give an extra motivation due to their capability to share and compare your results with your friends through their social sharing functionality’s and online community. These can be used as a tip for that aunt or uncle that (who has forgotten?) forgot to buy you a present, just sent them the link, haha! Most important though is that you remember that you should move more and avoid sitting to long in a chair or sofa. 
3. And last but not least: be more grateful! Robert A. Emmons, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology at the University of California and the founding editor-in-chief of The Journal of Positive Psychology. He wrote about research that proved you could increase your happiness by 25% by just being more grateful. The mechanism in short, is the following: your level of happiness is predefined and changes by the experience of the day: bad experience results in lower happiness level, good experience results in higher happiness level. It seems that practicing gratitude, would make you more resilient in your happiness level (reinforcing my first New years resolution) and generally improve your life expectancy!! Talking about a life improvement boot camp tip! I was given a Pebble stone (see the picture). It was a kick starter fund raiser back in 2014. It was a kind of electronic gadget you could put in your pocket and rub it when you felt grateful. By the end of the day you could see on the inside light color how good you were doing. Well I don’t know if it was the Pebble stone that did the trick, but it sure reminded me to be more conscious about being grateful, hence it made me happier, hence it made me act more positive and it gave me the urge to move!

So with or without the support of software, a device or a gimmick, take these New Year resolutions and make them yours now. You will never be disappointed during the year because you did not keep them, because you can start with them on a daily, even an hourly base. The only thing you are risking is that you might become less grumpy or moody, feel more energized and genuinely feel good on your way to improve your life!

Thanks for taking the time to read. Looking forward to your thoughts and feedback.

Have a conscious day!

Post References:

• Blog Post on being grateful, by Jack Wallen
• Cheap Pedometer on the Amazon Store US or Cheap Pedometer Amazon Store UK
• Fitbit Health tracker Amazon Store US or  Fitbit Healt Tracker Amazon Store UK
• Apple Watch Amazon Store US or Apple Watch Amazon Store UK