New Year…. New Me?

By: Melanie Arcidiacono, LAMFT

Every year the popular “New Year New Me” makes its rounds throughout our social circles, workplaces, and families usually with big talks of grandiose New Years resolutions. Most people tend to have the same recurring goals each year, but why is that? Why do we see such little success with our goals that seem to be completely reasonable?

It seems that setting a goal is often not the issue at all. Most of us can very well pinpoint the things we want to change or accomplish. It’s much more likely that the pace of your goals is what is unreasonable.

Whether your goal is a big house renovation or the popular “get back to the gym”, it may not be that your goal is too big or unrealistic but rather the timeline that you expect to get your goals completed. Too often do we all fall victim to the idea that if we don’t complete our goals in a short amount of time they aren’t possible or worthy of continuing. Not having appropriate expectations on a realistic timeline of your goal can lead you to feel defeated and unmotivated to push forward.

It’s important to know when going into any project, that it will inevitably take time, especially if you’re looking for results to last quite a while! Part of setting up realistic expectations for your goals is to understand how long it will take to achieve the end result. House projects cost time, money, and resources to complete so you would likely not expect structural or complex changes to happen in one weekend. The same also applies for body and health goals. Realistically, changing our health and body image can take a period of months or a couple years to achieve significant results. Let’s also apply this logic to financial health. Changes to our financial status takes patience, wise budgeting, and sometimes is a waiting game for things outside of our control!

When you are setting your goals for the New Year, or at any point in your year, please be kind to yourself and your timeline. Talk with your support circle or an expert to set up a plan that will help guide you through each chapter of your goal timeline that will help you maintain ambition and patience!

Melanie Arcidiacono, LAMFT

Melanie provides in-person and online sessions at our Galloway, NJ location and provides online services to clients in Pennsylvania. She works with couples looking to reconnect emotionally, resolve painful conflict, or strengthen their bond to create lasting change in their relationships. She also works with individuals to address self-confidence, improve boundaries and understand unhealthy patterns. To read more click here…

A BETTER LIFE THERAPY

A Better Life Therapy was founded in 2013 with a passion for providing warm, compassionate services to individuals and families in Pennsylvania. Our team specializes in relationship health as well as individual mental health. Our team has expertise in areas like anxiety, grief, depression, pregnancy related issues, sexual issues, substance use and trauma.

We currently have in person offices in: