New years Resolutions 2016, Quitting and Motivation

I will not eat any more budgies

   Well here we are at the start of another new year and I am sure many of us have already started on our journey on the "New Years Resolution Torture Train".
   It is a good time to remind ourselves of the important aspect of motivation in behaviour change.  It is no easy task to change any behaviour that we use in our daily lives but if we don't have the correct motivational drivers we are almost setting ourselves up for failure.  Clever captions such as "Quit for Life" don't really cut it for me.
   A resolution with a motivator of "its the new year" will hardly stand up to the rigors of craving and habit but if we look more closely into why we have really chosen our particular behaviour change we will have a much better chance of success.
   I needed to give up smoking for many years and each NY I gathered up my ash trays and ventured into the world of "I AM A NON-SMOKER".... never worked. When I tried hypnotherapy I went straight home full of anxiety and craving and lit up a cigerette.
   I finally gave up when I saw my dear friend dying of lung cancer.  My new motivation came from the fear of leaving my children without a mother and I now had horrendous knowledge and knew what I had to do.  I gave up smoking and never went back- the vision of my precious friend always in my mind.
   Thankfully, we don't always have such powerful drivers but if we look at whats really important to us and find those very specific and very personal motivators we are half way there.

   Good luck to all who are on the 2016 train!