What are your New Year’s Resolution Blockers?

You’ve met them. They’re the shady characters huddled up in the corners of your mind mumbling, “Who do you think you are?,” “I’m sorry, You think you can do what???,” “Twenty bucks says she won’t make it to February!”

The tricky thing is that, while New Year’s Resolutions are the stuff of small talk, no one seems to want to hear about these nasty little devils, or talk about them, let alone face them. In her seminal book, The Gifts of Imperfection, Brene Brown describes shame as thriving on secrecy, growing stronger when we can’t bear to speak of it. It’s the same with these fear-mongering cowards. Because we avoid facing them or talking about them, they continue to hold power over us, thwarting the best laid plans, and looming larger each year as they love to remind us of our past failures.

You can call them the New Year’s Bullies, the Resolution Blockers, call them whatever name will diminish their mysterious power and expose them for what they are: liars. They are the voices of fear and self-doubt that are holding you back from doing what you want to do, from being who you want to be, and from starting to live your best life TODAY.

And the best way to conquer them is to face them: HEAD. ON. Look at them, unpack them, find out where they are coming from, and then replace them with truth. If you can’t figure out why you expect to fail in your goals this year, why you can’t seem to just do what it is you want or intend to do, then maybe you haven’t confronted your Blockers yet. There’s no time like January to make a change that will last, starting inside of your head, with the way you talk to yourself.