KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — With just a few hours away from the new year, people around the world are setting those New Year’s resolutions. Yet, every year some of us fall short.
Dr. Rebeca Cardona, a life coach in Knoxville, said the holidays bring a lot of emotions and times to reflect. But when we hit a new year, how do we better ourselves? How do we better our lives?
“You're coming off of the holidays, the energy is wild," Dr. Cardona said. "And here you are, with the new year approaching just overnight, and you're thinking to yourself 'what can I do to make myself better?'”
Dr. Cardona has been a counselor in behavioral health for the last couple of decades. She has a Ph.D. in Marriage, Family and Mental Health Counseling, a Masters in Counseling and received her Bachelor’s in Academic Psychology.
Five years ago she created Fear NoThing where she helps people.
“This practice has been designed to really help people give themselves a great life, not only personally, but professionally -- and in the midst of challenges,” Dr. Cardona said.
Many people who have goals reach out to Dr. Cardona for her advice.
"I work a lot with high achievers, overachievers and perfectionists, and you don't have to be an executive to be one of those, you can just be that innately,” Dr. Cardona said.
She said in order to achieve goals, it’s all about your mindset. She said change takes time, it's a journey and there will be bumps in the path.
“Use those lapses and those challenges as your best teachers versus throwing in the towel,” Dr. Cardona said.
Dr. Cardona described three quick steps to help people when setting goals. The first step, when setting a goal, take time to plan for what your resolution needs to be. Second, keep your goals simple. Start with one to two big ideas maximum. And third, make your goal visual.
"Put [your goals] on your computer, put them on your phone, put them on your bathroom window, put them in your car," Dr. Cardona said. "So that you can see them and remind yourself of what you want to commit to.”
One of the biggest challenges people often come across when setting goals is procrastination. Dr. Cardona's advice is, if you find yourself procrastinating or falling short you should ask yourself the following question:
"How do I tweak this so that it can be added into my life, and I can see a result at the end of the year, even if it's different than where I started.”
Dr. Cardona said, if you work on your goals at least three times a week, you have a good chance of achieving them.
At the end of the day, this is what this life coach wants people to take from Fear NoThing.
"Life is full of challenges, and 2023 is going to bring them," Dr. Cardona said. "But by no means do we have to allow that to take away from the greatness and the happiness and the joy that we can have this year."