Tools for making lifestyle changes

Making lifestyle changes at any time of the year, but especially at new year, can be hard.

Just because it’s January, it doesn’t mean you have to change anything at all. It’s the middle of the winter, when we naturally want to rest and retreat, and therefore it’s not always an easy time to make lifestyle changes. If you do want to set goals though, here are some resources that can help you.

January was named after the Roman god Janus, who had two faces: one looking forward, and another looking back.

How can our memory and imagination help us make lifestyle changes?

It’s traditional in December and January to reflect on what we’ve done over the last year, and to look forward to what we might do differently in the future, or perhaps make resolutions about the next year.

When doing so, we tap into two useful internal resources – our memory and our imagination.

Combined, they are a very strong force. We share a saying at Suffolk Mind: imagination is stronger than willpower.

Resolutions and goals

If you make new year’s resolutions, this can be particularly useful if you want to keep them.

For example, if we want to do a little more exercise in 2026, we might use our memory to think of a time when we enjoyed doing exercise. What games did we like playing at school? Did we prefer swimming or running, or team sports, or just hitting a tennis ball up against the wall?

Using our memory, we can think back to how we felt at the time as well. Then, using our imagination, we can try to picture ourselves doing some activity again.

If we never liked going to the gym, or know we don’t have time to visit every day or twice a week, there’s little point resolving to go and spending money joining one. There’s little point even taking a week’s free trial, if we just go once or twice and then feel bad about not going again.

You can set goals at any time of the year

I don’t tend to make new year’s resolutions as I know I’ll probably break them anyway. But also, why wait until next January to make a change in your life, or improve something?

Instead, I tend to think the most important aspect of a lifestlye change or improvement is that it’s achievable and realistic. And I try (not always successfully) to link it to a happy memory and imagine a positive future with me doing it.

If you’ve made a new year’s resolution, and many people do, how are you going to give yourself the best chance of keeping it? If you’ve broken it already, don’t worry – let’s just start from now instead.

It doesn’t just have to be about physical activity, of course. Maybe think back to a leader, or a manager or colleague that you particularly liked or respected. What was it about them that made you feel good about yourself? What behaviours did they role model? Could you picture yourself doing the same?

Or maybe there was someone who was a good friend or family member. We could make a new year’s resolution to be more like them…perhaps just occasionally – got to keep it achievable.

Whatever it is you want to do, and whatever time of year you want to make a change, it’s a good idea to put your Janus hat on and think back to a memory that’s a good example of the change, and think forward, using your imagination, to see yourself doing the thing.

Service link

Did you know that Counselling isn’t just for talking about your past, challenging experiences, or what’s currently not right? You can use your Counselling sessions to talk to someone non-judgemental and unbiased about your future plans and goals. Talking to someone else about your goals, your plan to get there, and exploring hurdels you may face, makes the goal more realistic to achieve. Some of our Counsellors even specialise in goal-setting and making changes. Read about our counselling service here.