New Year Resolution

What A Dick I Was

I'm Rethinking Resolutions – From Dickishness to Empowerment

Hey, welcome back to the Personal Development Unplugged Podcast – your space to dive into the real stuff that makes life better. In today's episode, we're shaking things up and rethinking New Year's resolutions. Ever feel like you're being a total "dick" for ranting against the whole New Year's resolution thing? I know I have, and guess what – I'm here to apologize for it.

I've always felt resolutions should be something we set any day of the year, not just on New Year's Eve. But hey, who am I to decide? For many, that quiet time between Christmas and New Year is the perfect chance to reflect and set goals. So let's embrace it!

Now, here's the deal: Instead of falling into the trap of vague and painful resolutions (you know, stuff like "lose weight" or "quit bad habits"), how about we focus on the joy of change? Let's turn those "shoulds" into "wows" and set resolutions that excite us. How? By making them personal – focusing on what truly matters to you, not what everyone else thinks.

Here's a quick exercise: Grab a notebook and jot down three things you'd like to change about yourself – physically, emotionally, or behaviorally. Now, take about ten minutes and brainstorm anything else you'd like to change or improve. Let your imagination run wild! When you're done, see if any of these new ideas replace the initial three you wrote down.

Next, pick the one change that would make the biggest difference in your life. Ask yourself: What would this change allow me to do? How would it transform my life? What beliefs would support this change? Write those down and let yourself feel the excitement!

Now comes the best part: What's the smallest step you can take toward this change? And, most importantly, schedule it. Small, consistent steps are what lead to the big transformations.

Please share what you learn: https://personaldevelopmentunplugged.com/428-new-year-resolution-what-a-dick-i-was

And don't worry – I'm here to help. If you need any support or have questions, reach out to me anytime at [email protected].

Let's make these resolutions stick – and let's make changes that really matter. Together, we can make the world a brighter place, one small step at a time.

Subscribe, share, and keep growing.

Shine Brightly 🌟

Paul

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Music Credits

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And the transcript WARNING if you're a lover of the written word this may make you frustrated, or angry - you have been warned - is it an 'ism

Have you ever thought what I thought? And that thought was like the title, what a dick. And that's me I'm talking about, by the way. What a dick am I. What a dick was I. And I had that thought just a little while ago. Why? Why, you ask? Because you're not. You're not a dick, Cloughie. I know you're saying that, really, I wish you well. It'd be nice if you did think that. But, hey, this is where I'm coming from. This is what I was thinking about. every year, every blooming year, I have a rant. I have a rant about New Year's resolutions. And it's about the time, it's about that time. And I was going to do that. I was going to do another rent. You see, most people, and this is what I do, I do it after most people's New Year's resolutions have disappeared. They started them with the best of intentions. Ish. And, they disappear. And I go on this rant saying how crazy it is to do New Year s resolutions in the New Year. Well, wait, I don't know what other time you do New Year s resolution. But, hey, you see, my thought was, why, only at, New year, we've got 365 days plus one on a leap year to make resolutions. And, I thought that was a brilliant thing to say. What a dick. What a bloody dick. Who am I to say what's right or wrong? And, I apologize. I truly, truly, truly apologize for being an absolute dickhead. And that's what I'm doing. I'm apologizing. So why am I doing this podcast now, then? Well, I still believe. I still believe there's 365 days in a year, plus a leap year day and all that stuff. And any day is good for a resolution. But the thing is, as I say, who am I? You see, if for some people, and, I'm one of them sometimes, well, I did it the other day. My son did it the other day. You see, for some people, this period after Christmas, before the New Year, is the only time that there seems to be time present. There seems to be spare time. It's a time of the year where we forget what day it is. You know, is it a Monday? Is it Tuesday, whatever. But there seems to be more time present. And I think sometimes the masses, the noise turns to New Year's resolutions. You know, we're pushed, I think, into New Year's resolutions. I heard the other day on the radio these people telling how good New Year's resolutions were. And I did buy it. I did buy it. I was going to do my little rant and again, what a dick. And then, then a bloody thought about it. Hooray. I thought to myself, don't be such a dick if that's what people do, if this is what we do. Because you did it yourself, Cluer. You sat down last night actually, and started to think about what you really want. It is a time to help people with that process, to help people with the process of resolutions. You use resolutions to make them successful. And the thing is, what I thought to myself was, if I can give that a little bit of help, share a couple of ways that would make that process successful. So New Year's resolution actually doesn't just bloody disappear, doesn't fade away. Then, maybe we'll start to think about that other 364 or five days that at any time when, when we do some change work, we just decide to do it. Because that day, that time will be right. So let's just have a little look or.

 

 

New Year's resolutions tend to be pretty general, don't they

 

Well, I had a little look. What, are New Year's resolutions? Yeah, I know that it's something we want to do, but just think about for a moment. I did. They tend to be pretty general, don't they? And I think they tend to be peer pressure, media pressure, you know, all that noise pressure. Lose weight. I'm gonna lose weight this year. I'm, gonna stop drinking this year. I'm gonna cut down my alcohol. I'm gonna run miles and miles and miles and miles and miles a day. And I'm going to start stop doing stuff. I'm, going to stop doing the stuff that I've been doing. I want to start doing other stuff. But when we look at each one of those, losing weight, stop drinking, running miles, stop doing the stuff that we've been doing for a long time, start doing stuff that we haven't done for a long time. I think the initial thought is, that's bloody painful. It doesn't enthused, does it? it doesn't jump out and go, yeah, yippee, I'm gonna lose weight. That's going toa be easy. O I'm just going toa stop drinking because I like drinking. I want toa run miles a day. Yeah. And all that stuff. So why wouldn't they bloody fel there we all hate pain, don't we? We all love some pleasure, don't we? I love pleasure. Pleasure is a nice thing. Wallowing. Pleasure is one of the little things I love to say. You know, there's something that gives you pleasure, wallow in it. Because it's a nice thing. And you're generally pretty safe when you do that in the world, or pretty safe in the world when you do that. It's like carrot and stick. Do you like being whoop round the head with a stick or do you be like. Or do you like being given a treat? I know that if you give someone a compliment compliment on something that they generally genuinely not generally genuinely have done a pretty good job, they will do it even better. And the stuff that they don't do quite so good, that comes up as well. Yet if you just criticize with that stick, they just retreat into a shell, and nothing gets better. so how can I help change that? That's what I thought. How can I help? Well, I look back and I use Cast Box a lot. That's a lovely little app for listening to podcasts. And, I've subscribed to my own podcast, the Personal Development unplugged podcast, just like you have. You have, you did, didn't you? If you haven't do it now. Do it right now. Just subscribe. You'll get the podcast Wednesdays and a Saturday. And you see, I look back through podcasts because you can search. And I just put the search term, goal in and there's at least 15 episodes comes up in that search just for the term gold. So I've done loads of episodes. Two very specific ones I did around about. It was in February. So it's like this thing after my rant, I then wanted to do something positive. So hash 271 and 272, which was a part two about the alternative or something. I think it was called the antidote to achieving your goals. Something like that. Now, you could do that. You could just say, Cloughie, you're such a, such a wonderful person. You're no dick. You've done all of this. I could listen to each one of those. You could, and I really hope you do. Certainly. 271-272-Because I know if you made a commitment to listen to those things would make a difference in your life, things would change. But before you do that, make a note. T71, T72 or search goal now come up.

 

 

If you could change three things about you, what would they be

 

But before you do that, having, made that note, let's just park that for the moment. And I want you to park all that peer pressure, all the things you should be doing, and we should all over ourselves what people say we should be doing, how we should look, how we should act, how we should behave. The noise, I, When I say the noise, it's like all those bloody. I'm, on it. I know TikTok and Facebook and all that stuff, but there's so much pressure there. And once you get clicking on one bit, it just keeps coming and you get more pressure. You start comparing against other people, or I should be like that, should be like that again, shooting all over ourselves. And then there's maybe pressure from the family, our friends. I call it peer pressure. But family pressure, partner pressure. And there's the pressure of the past. We look back how I used to be, how I always thought I wanted to be, and this is what I could have been and should have been and didn't do a good have, woulda, should have. So I want you to park all of that. That s. That's a pain, isn't it? That is the pain. So park it all. We don't need it. We don't want it. I just want you to think of this. And ideally, please have a little notebook. You've got one of those little notebooks, haven't you? Because we've talked about that before. A little piece of paper, a pen, pencil, and, I just want you to think for a moment. Think for a moment. If you were to change three things about you, if you could change three things about you, maybe physically, emotionally, behavurable, I your behave as your habits, maybe spiritually, maybe mentally, maybe I said issually, because I don't know that's a word. But what I mean is if there are issues that you, are affecting, you could be anxiety, could be guilt, could be a lack of confidence, could be, oh, I don't know, fear of anything, impostor syndrome, OCD anything like that. That'sually. So you've got physically, emotionally, behaviorally, spiritually, mentally  and any other section. If there was just three things that you could change, what would they be? Now, I know you first of all think, well, actually, I don't know if I can change. No, no, no, I didn't say that. I said if you could. If you knew that you could make those changes right now without any fear of failure and they would make a, difference, the most difference in your life, what would those three things be? And don't worry about it for the moment, you Think. Oh, I can't pick that. Just pick three. Pick three that come to mind now and make a note of them. That so s all I want you to do. Just make a note of them for the moment. Yeah, Just three things. So imagine. Because if it was just imagination, you know you're not gonna do it. You know, you're not get my words right, Cly. They're not gonna change right now. So therefore it doesn't matter what you imagineus. You can have what you want. What you want. Not what other people want. Not the noise, not the family, not the past, not the peers. Peer pressure. Three things that if you think that if you were to have them now change, they would make the most difference in your life. I just write them down. Just write them down. Okay, that's eas, isn't it? Now I know you thought don't really need to write that down because I can remember three things now. I said write them down because we're gonn do something else now. I want you to write them down. And now I want you to take 10 minutes. Oh no, you've all got 10 bloody minutes. Everyone's got 10 minutes. And if you need to just pause this when you have 10 minutes and when you do, I want you to come back to, with that piece of paper, a different piece of paper. Because I want you to write what I want you to do for in 10 minutes, non stop, I want you to write out everything and anything that you would change. Absolutely everything. Don't let that pen leave the paper. Just go for it, man. Just go for it. No editing, no criticism, know nothing and just do it. And once you get the first two or three out, it will flow. And if you want to just pause and do it now, just go for it. Anything, and everything big, small, or big. Anything and everything that you like to have differently, to be different. And then at the end of that 10 minutes and if you did pause and now you've come back, what I want you to do is look at that list, what you've written on that page. Hopefully it's a big list. And when you look at though, everything on, that page or pages, open them out, does any one of those, maybe more than one, replace those first three things that you thought about when I asked you what would, if you could just change three things, what would they be? And just look. Because what sometimes happens is we pick the first three and they're the ones that we've been thinking about for years and years and years. And years and years. We've put in New Year's resolutions or whatever for years and years and years and years and years. And they're the stock. We just go in there, pick em out and that's a stock reply, the answer. And sometimes when we just load out all these different alternatives that we could have, it's like our unconscious mind and conscious mind come together and throw up something that's really real, that when you look at it, you go, shit, that would be good. That would really be good. I just look down that liston, see it. You'll get it. You'll see it. It'll jump out of you and go, well, that would. There's two there. Or maybe you find three new ones, it doesn't matter. But you find you take the first three and then if you replace any one, two or three of them, just do that. Find the things at, those top three now. And they're not casting stone by the way. We can change these as we go along. This is just to get you really going. But those top three, get them and I want you again, another piece of paper. Shitload of paper this isn't it, but it's good.

 

 

Small steps done consistently have an incremental difference. I've talked about smaller steps before

 

I want you to think and write at the same time. Because when you write you really think. That's what thinking is when you really get into writing. What would this change allow me to do? Allow me to be different? Just write that, if I was to be this, I have this in my life, how would that be different for me? What would that allow me to do? What new things would it attract? How would my life change? And go 1, 2, 3. Do each one individually. And as you write them, see in your mind's eye and notice each one feels so good. Mmm, yeah, they would feel yummy. I don't know why yummy came r over my head, but that'd feel so good. Each one. And as you look back at the first one again, what belief would you have to have when you've got this change inside you, when you're doing it? What's that wonderful positive belief, I can do this, I've got it. Things m like that, what type of belief you have? Make the bugger up and you'll probably find that the feelings are the same. Ish. And this belief would work for each one of them as well. Well, maybe two beliefs, whatever it is, but they'd work for each other interchangeable. And they're so positive. And when you look at all three of them now, what you've described how you feel it, that belief. Notice the one that would make the most difference, the one that you said, out of those three, if I could only have one, what would it be? The one that would make the most difference in my life. And when you do that, put a bloody great big line under it, put a highlighter over it, write number one. Yay. And then think to yourself, okay, fine. What'the one small step that I could do now, what is one small step? The smaller step. I've talked about smaller steps before. Small steps done consistently have an incremental difference. They're marvellous, they're brilliant. Don't marvelous. But hey, write down what's the one small step that you could do? Do you know what you're gonna do? Younna schedule it, do it. If you can do it now, do it. If you can do it this afternoon, do it. If you can do it tomorrow morning, do it. Schedule it down, set it on your phone, put an alarm on and do it. And once you're doing that one, think to yourself, what's the next small step I could do? Look at it again. This is that one thing. This is what it's going to allow me to do. This is what it's going to feel. This is a belief I've got about myself. Do it. Act as if we've talked about. Act as if that's on the hypnosis tracks as well. If you want a little bit of help of acting as if that would be it. The five keys to success. It's another episode and another. I think I've done that in a hypnosis track would help you get into that. Picking one small step and then another and then another. And as you start to do that and you make the incremental steps of success, you'll find you will change. Those changes will come to you naturally because you've now set your intention. You know how good it feels. Your unconscious mind is latched onto this. You're in alignment. And then as you just start to that, you can look at maybe the second one out of the two that's left. Which one? If I had only one of those two, what one could I start? What one would I have now? What would make the most difference? Pick that one and think to yourself, guess what, what would be the smallest step I could do to do that while I'm doing the others? If I could add to this, maybe I'm only going toa do this one, once a week. So what's the step I'm gonna make this week, because the other one I'm doing, I, don't know, three or four steps a week, one every other day, easy peasy. Then I'm going toa add this one on and then you go listen to those episodes. #271, #272 and all the others. Or, and not and, or it's not this or that. It's as well as what if. I'll have a what if. What if. You said to me, hey, Cloughie, can you help me with this? How the bloody hell do I get into this bit? I've started my steps, I need a little bit of help, a little bit of encouragement or I've got something that's. Give me a little bit of, you know, a blockage, something stopping me, something's blocking me. Can you help me? Too bloody right I can help you. All you've got to do is email me [email protected] let me get away from my dickishness and be able to help.

 

 

Paul Clough encourages you to make changes this year

 

I'll probably dive into other stuff as well as we go through because I'm going through a lot of, episodes around about anxiety and confidence. And obviously there's anxiety comes around from not being able to do these things sometimes. And also there's that getting the confidence to, to do them even more. But this is a start. This is the great start. And this is my new rant of getting you with all the oomph you can get to start with doing the things you want, making the changes that you want. And we're starting off with one change. I'm changing by trying to change not being a dick. That's gonna take day after day after day. I think I'm pretty good at it, but I want you to be pretty good at changing. And then you'll start to notice that you're changing every day. You're setting out little things every day, or you're just enjoying life every day because of the changes you've made. Now I hope, I do hope that, I've explained myself better this year, encouraging you to make those changes. I want you to make resolutions, to be the best version of yourself, help others do everything you can to enjoy life. And if I can help you in any way, I will. So I hope I've, communicated, articulated in the best way I can. And that best way is to just sow a little seed, a little golden nugget inside. That's right. Way deep inside you will nurture and grow and mature There you go. Have more fun than you can stand. And let's just enjoy life by making a difference everywhere. Okay? Now, I will see you. I'll be in your head every time you press play, so remember to subscribe. And, if you could please share. I know I ask it every time, and I bet you don't, but you'll notice the difference it makes to other people if you do. And it will make a difference to this podcast. It will get it into more people's ears. And if we can just make these small changes in. In ourselves and more people make changes in their sel, the world will become a better place. It has to. Anyway, I'll see you next time. Bye. War. You are now leaving the unplugged mind of Paul Clough. It's time to fly on your own. Be brave, my friend.

 

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