Embracing 2025: Crafting Realistic Resolutions for a Fulfilling Life

What if embracing the New Year could be more than just a fleeting resolution? Join us The English Sisters as we welcome 2025 with open arms, exploring the art of setting realistic goals that don't just fade away. Learn how even small shifts, like adding a piece of fruit to your diet or a short walk to your day, can lead to significant boosts in self-esteem and long-term success. We'll uncover the truth behind popular trends such as 'Dry January' and offer insights on how to make sustainable life changes, whether it's traveling more or quitting smoking. This episode promises to equip you with the tools to craft resolutions that truly enhance your well-being.

Together, we'll embark on a journey to build healthy habits while savoring life's simple pleasures. From the joy of a perfect cup of tea to the profound impact of daily gratitude, discover how small, manageable changes can create a fulfilling lifestyle. Don't stress if your resolutions take a backseat; it's all about getting back on track whenever you're ready. Let nature's automatic renewal inspire your personal growth, as we encourage you to plan achievable adventures that enrich your life. With enthusiasm and authenticity, we explore how to find happiness in everyday moments and look forward to brighter days ahead.

Hypnotherapy coaching sessions can help if you are struggling with anxiety.  Please email us at englishsisters@gmail.com if you would like help with an issue, mentioning this episode of our podcast for a special discounted rate. We work with clients worldwide over Zoom. Buy our Book Stress Free in Three Minutes available on Amazon and Kindle, to help support our work. Thank you!

Love and smiles from The English Sisters.

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Chapters

• 0:00 New Year's Resolutions and Realistic Goals
• 7:11 Building Healthy Habits and Enjoying Life

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Happy New Year, the first episode of the New Year, and it's the 1st of January 2025. Yippee, wow. And of course, it's time to make our New Year's resolutions. And also for you, if you make them, it's time to make them now, yes, yes, and we will be talking about that today, won't we? We will, so listen to this week's episode of Get Real with the English Sisters.

Speaker 1: 0:35

How do you feel about New Year's resolutions, jutka? Well, there is something odd that actually happens when the year turns there is, isn't there, isn't it? It? It's like all the symbolism associated to it. You say happy new year, and then you know that it's the new year and there's something rebirth, yes, new life, yes. And then it's kind of like January and then the spring comes. So there is this feeling of like anything is possible. I think, yeah, and like decluttering, I always feel like, yes, yes, after Christmas, you know, yes, then you start getting rid of all the Christmas decorations, not quite yet, but soon, kind of you know, and you feel, and you feel, I think, well, I, I think. I personally feel like a little bit, even though maybe a little bit heavier, because I've eaten more. Well, we're definitely heavier, that's for sure, but I feel lighter in spirit because I've had a break. Well, there's been the holidays, yeah, so you've had that kind of a break, definitely.

Speaker 1: 1:41

Yeah, I'm not sure about actually making those resolutions, you know, actually sticking to them. Well, I don't. Do you know what I'm making? You know I don't like writing things down much. No, so actually writing a list of things that I want to do, I'm not very in favour of that. No, I think it has to be realistic. Yeah, it has to be a realistic thing. Yeah, it has to be a realistic thing. I don't think that we should make these unrealistic things, you know, and plan them all and then set ourselves up for failure. But I do think that if we can make like small changes that we can already start doing in January, I think they're going to definitely make us feel better about ourselves.

Speaker 1: 2:21

Yeah, a lot of people have this dry January, don't they? When they don't drink, because, after all, that makes sense. Yeah, it makes sense. Yeah, detox isn't it? It is, yeah, so that's not a bad idea to start, you know, to start looking at how, what we're eating and maybe getting more water intake. That's definitely always a good idea. Um, generally, yes, I mean there's lots of these new year's resolution. I want to travel more. I want to lose all this weight. I want to quit smoking. I want to do this. Good, they're good, but you know you've got to, you've got to good. I like the way you say good, no, it's definitely. You know, people, they're good resolutions, they're good ideas. Yeah, I think you hit it on the nail before when you said you're setting yourself up for failure. Yes, you make them too difficult.

Speaker 1: 3:15

If you know that you're not going to commit to doing an hour of exercise a week. Don't say it, don't say it. Say I'm going to say write down, I'm going to do five minutes exercise a day. Yes, for the next three months. Yes, definitely. Yes, let's go down that route. Let's make it something that Easy, tangible Tangible that we can build up our self-esteem by saying, right, I did that. I actually did that. You know, I got on the treadmill and I started maybe 20 minutes.

Speaker 1: 3:46

Not, I'm not going to start doing one whole hour. No, I know that by tomorrow I won't want to do a whole hour because my legs are going to be killing me. I'm going to do it for two weeks and then you'll give up. Or you do it for a month and then you'll give up. Yes, or you do it for a month and then you'll give up, and then you say I hate doing this, I'm not doing it anymore. Yes, yes. It's like saying, oh, I'm not going to eat carbs for the whole year. Come on, to most of us, that's not going to be realistic.

Speaker 1: 4:10

No, you can start off by saying, okay, maybe I I don't know the breads that you're eating or incorporate a piece of fruit in your diet. That's it. Yeah, that's good. Instead of taking away, instead of thinking I have to have five pieces of fruit a day because I haven't been eating fruit. Yes, yeah, exactly. Start with one. I mean, five is quite a lot. Well, isn't it five fruit and veg? I think so. So it's like quite a lot. Well, isn't it five fruit and veg? I think so. It's like you can reasonable. Yeah, so you can choose that. You can have one like orange and clementine, yeah, and then you can have some salad, a banana yeah, that's what I go for. Yeah, a banana. And then then some more veggies. Yeah, I mean, it is quite a lot.

Speaker 1: 4:58

You, you can have some nuts, though, if you think about it, you can add some nuts. You can have one walnut, that'll count. Is that considered fruit? Yeah, of course it is. It's dry fruit. It's dry fruit. Yeah, it's not fresh, who cares? It's still really healthy. You know that walnuts are actually formed.

Speaker 1: 5:15

If you're not allergic, if you open it yeah, if you're obviously you're not alert I'm actually tiny bit. My tongue stings when I eat them. When you eat apple you always try and give me some. Yeah, because your tongue, my tongue, stings. It's a drag, but anyway, I'm not allergic to it, but just slightly. I don't know what it is. Cooked apples are better, aren't they cooked apples? I can eat them, yeah, but anyway, do you know that the walnut actually looks like a brain and they actually say that's disgusting actually, yeah, but it's actually Now. You've put me off eating it for life. No, but when you open it it actually says it's really good for brain function and well, that makes sense. So it makes sense. You know it actually looks like a.

Speaker 1: 5:53

Isn't it funny how food that actually looks like the kidney? I'm sorry, but this is not relevant. You're just going down those rabbit holes you go down when you associate two things it's handy to associate. This is a nutritionist I got these tips from, and so it is relevant. What I'm saying is that you don't have to go and eat masses of different fruit and vegetables. You can just have one walnut, you can have, you know, one orange, half an orange. And veg you can just have one walnut you can have, you know, uh, one orange, half an orange, or something.

Speaker 1: 6:23

You can slowly introduce things. A couple of carrots, yeah, that you're not used to eating and say, okay, so that's adding to, you know, to having adding to the healthiness, isn't it? Well, it is snap, definitely, yes, of course, of course. Uh, so yeah. Or you could be thinking I'm going to cut back on something. So if you're having too much, well it is, isn't it? Definitely? Yes, of course, of course. So yeah. Or you could be thinking I'm going to cut back on something. So if you're having too much coffee, say, you could think I'm going to have one less in this new year, yeah.

Speaker 1: 6:48

So if you have three coffees a day, say, I'll cut back to two and you can have some. Or maybe I'll have two, like it's still chilly, isn't it? So you want something hot? You can make yourself a tea. Another, you know you love teas, I love teas. Yeah, you can have chamomile tea, hibiscus tea, which is really healthy, and it's that lovely red tea.

Speaker 1: 7:11

You can have lots of different teas, but you have to just have the right tools for these teas. Yeah, like those filters, you know, because you get them in bags as well. You can get them in bags. Yeah, it's because I bought the loose kind of variety. Yeah, they're too fussy for me. They're not happy, really, if you've got those little cones, I don't like that stuff. Well, anyway, what we're saying is that it's, it's easy, isn. Yes, you do have time for it. I can't be bothered with it, I don't like it. Oh, my goodness me. For you it's like a moment of relax. You enjoy those kind of things, not really. I just pop it in that little filter thing and then you just close it, I know, I know, and then you have good quality tea.

Speaker 1: 7:58

They're new habits to build, that's right. Yeah, they're new habits, exactly. So it's a new year and you can start a new healthy habit. You can have a healthy habit and and then you'll just become used to it and you won't even think of it as a healthy habit anymore. It'll just become part of your daily routine. Yeah, but what about the fact that you know you'll fill the need for it.

Speaker 1: 8:20

New year's resolutions everyone breaks them. Well, that's what I'm saying. You know, don't we do about that? We can, we can make it, make them realistic. You know, don't make them like. We can make it like not a big deal if you stop.

Speaker 1: 8:36

If you break your new year's resolution for one day, you can go back to it the next day. Well, that's a good idea, yeah, but you know you can redirect. You don't have. I mean, I don't even really know, do people really adhere strictly? There is a percentage of people that really do, and then they get really upset if they break them. So like, say, if you want to give up smoking and you go for a whole week without smoking a cigarette and then you smoke one because you're at a I don't know, you go to a social event or something, and then afterwards it's not a big deal.

Speaker 1: 9:09

Just, you know, just go back to the next day, say I'm going to keep my New Year's resolution and at the end of the day, nothing's going to happen. If you just you know, if you have a little what's it called? A little hiccup, yes, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah, nothing's going to happen. Who are we setting these, but at the same time they are for ourselves and they do build up our self-esteem when we do manage to accomplish some of them. So you know, I just do easy things. I know I'm going to be able to stick to.

Speaker 1: 9:41

I don't really do this famous new year's resolution, even though maybe unconsciously, I do sort of thing I think we all do. I want to work less this year. I want to have more fun, spend more time, sort of quality time enjoying. These are going to be my resolutions. You know definitely want to enjoy more everyday moments, everyday life. Well, yeah, I want to my in the end, ultimately, I want to go to bed at night thinking one nice, thinking of one nice thing every day that I did, just one little nice, nice thing to do in the new years. To have like a gratitude list, to have something that kind of made me happy that day. You know I want at least one. Like the other day when I went to bed I thought what did I do that actually made me happy? And I couldn't find it, oh dear, because it was just intense work and it was particularly stressful day. So I thought it's not no, no. So now I'm looking for the happy, even if it's just like having a nice coffee, you know, or sitting out in the sun for a bit. I want something that I can focus on that's going to make me happy.

Speaker 1: 10:52

Yesterday I saw something that made me happy. What was it? I can't remember. I think it was lots of leaves on the floor. They're pretty. They were so pretty. I can't remember where I saw them now, but that's it. Before going to sleep I thought of all those like autumn leaves still, you know, still there, but so many of them. I really like them. We had a late autumn this year, didn't we? Yes, well, last year now, but the leaves, yes, the leaves are still kind of falling. They're still falling.

Speaker 1: 11:24

It's interesting to notice how nature doesn't have to make new year's resolutions, because they're just automatic. They are indeed. Yeah, it just renews itself. Which are the trees? The leaves fall and then the new buds come up again, and you know there's something lovely about that.

Speaker 1: 11:44

And for some people, we know that January can be really hard because you know you may be on your own again. You'll soon be going back to work if you've had a break, but you know, if you think about nature's January, it's a time for rebirth, isn't it Absolutely? There's more light as well. If you think about nature's January, it's a time for rebirth, isn't it Absolutely? So maybe you can think about that. You can think about that and just keep that hope in your heart that you know the days are going to be getting lighter, it is getting brighter, and have a bright day Definitely going to get brighter, and then it's February. Have bright days to look forward to as well. Yeah, it's exciting. And and then it's February. Yeah, it's exciting. Is that what you said about the holidays?

Speaker 1: 12:25

If you want to travel more, maybe now is the time to start planning a few things. But don't plan something that's just completely out of your budget, yes, or just completely ridiculous. Maybe start small, like a little trip away, a weekend away, even a day out, exactly a day out to somewhere nice you want to go. Yeah, some way that you could do this thing, literally walk to. If you don't have, you know, if you don't have a car or you you think it's going to be too costly to, actually you can walk somewhere.

Speaker 1: 12:52

I mean, the main thing is to keep them, keep them contained, these new year's resolutions, keep them doable. Keep them doable and then you can do them. You can say look, today I said that at least one month, every Sunday, I want to do something new or visit something new, for example. That could be one of my new year's resolutions. Actually, thinking about it, it sounds quite fun. It is, but it doesn't have to be something unrealistic, because I know that a lot of the times I'm going to be tired on a Sunday. But at least if I think, yeah, well, I can do that, I can go and visit a new place or do something new, have, have some fun. I want to have more laughter.

Speaker 1: 13:31

Sometimes it might be that you want to, you know, reconnect with a family member, so you want to text them, say, maybe once a week or something you know might. You might not have the phone. You can maybe send them a sweet little text or something, or a friend that you haven't talked to for a long time. There's all these little things that you can think about that make your life more enjoyable and you know you'll feel more connected in the end. Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think we're going to be scribbling things in our mind. Well, I write them down.

Speaker 1: 14:03

Well, what do you have as a new year's idea? I want to get even fitter. Oh right, so it's all about fitness, then for me, it's fitness, yeah, and also fitness and health, then that's very, very classical. Yeah, that's a good one. Fitness and health, and me, too, definitely also to um, to make new friends, to foster the new friendships that I'm making and enjoy life as well.

Speaker 1: 14:30

Like you said, yeah, I definitely want to have more fun. I want to have more laughter and more memories. I want to have more memories. You know to, I want to build memories. It's actually lovely, because I was the other day, I was just laughing at something someone said and I was laughing out loud to it and I was thinking this is really lovely. It is lovely. Yes, you want funny. Yes, to find things funny, to see the humorous side of things and to keep up. You know to to to have to build memories. I want to build more memories. That's what I want to do, because, fundamentally, in the end, work is work. You know, money is money, but what you've got are the memories. These are the things that you keep, and they're the things that really count. They are the things that really count, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 15:26

Obviously, I'd love the podcast to grow as well. Oh yes, oh yes. So, thank you all for listening, thank you so much and for being with us. We're so grateful to all of you that you know. Tune in. Yeah, we really do appreciate you on youtube as well. Um, yes, I'm very, very excited for 2025, I must say it's very promising. It is a promising year, isn't it? Yes, and it's a five. I like the five you do, do you? Well, it's a quarter, it's a quarter into the century, isn't it? Yes, 2000. Gosh, it is, it's already a quarter. I remember the year 2000. It's amazing. It does seem a long time ago, of course, 2000, gosh, yes, 25, that was ages ago. Oh, my gosh, 25 years ago. Goodness me, goodness me, yeah, it's just like wow. But anyway, happy new year everyone. Go and have a lazy day or, if you're listening afterwards, enjoy, enjoy the new year, enjoy the new year everyone. Lots of love and smiles from the English sisters. Bye.