"New Year's Day... now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual..." - Mark TwainChances are better than even that many of us who made New Year's resolutions have abandoned them, or are flagging. According to a recent study conducted by Harris Interactive®, only 22 percent of men and 14 percent of women follow through on our resolutions. Most of us drop our efforts by Valentine's Day, having faltered early and been overrun by the all-too-common cascade of rationalization and resignation.
If you're struggling, take heart. You can achieve your goals, and keep your resolutions. Having failed in the past in no way makes you weak-willed. What gets in the way of most of us is a total lack of preparation for success in achieving our resolutions. Here are some tips that can improve your odds.
Be specific. You are much more likely to follow through on a resolution with dates and measures in them. For example, "I will lose 2 pounds a month until Memorial Day, with an end goal of losing 10 pounds. I'll weigh myself on the 28th of each month." Contrast that with, "I want to lose weight." Which is more likely to produce results?
Be realistic and fair toward yourself. How many smokers have failed by vowing to quit a 3-pack-a-day smoking habit "cold turkey"? And dieters by limiting themselves to starvation-level calorie intakes? Achieving our goals should be enjoyable, not punishment and deprivation. Rigid and severe regimens are an "all or nothing" approach which can only exhaust you by constantly testing willpower. It's best to start with small, sensible, progressive goals that don't cause misery. Cut back in small ways. Give yourself small milestones along the way. As you succeed in those progressive goals, extend and expand them. Such goals are also more likely to result in a true lifestyle change, rather than a short-term crash course that is unbearable in the long run.
Review. We're often making the same resolution we made but didn't keep last year. You have a perfect opportunity to identify some potential problems! Think about the situations and obstacles which tripped you up last year. Did you end up pigging out on neighbor Bob's chili-cheese dip at the Superbowl party last year? Did Cousin Lisa's smoke-break call you outside despite your intention to quit? In either case, make a mental plan for what you'll do when tempted. Take gum to chew; bring something tasty but less sinful to munch on; sit away from the food; or take a few quiet moments out back, rather than out front with the smokers.
Write it down. By putting your resolution in writing and posting it somewhere within your view, you'll remind yourself to make choices that are consistent with your goals. As anyone who benefitted from taking tons of notes in school will know, merely writing it as you hear it can often give a little memory boost to the material. Many of us are visual or kinetic learners, so the mere act of manipulating a pen in writing our goals, or seeing it in black and white on a piece of paper, can impress that goal more deeply on our consciousness.
Share your goals. This may be the most important tip of all. It's unfortunate news for "the fairer sex," but men are more likely than women to always or often keep resolutions. (22% of men, versus 14% of women). Do men just have stronger wills (no) or is it something else? The key may be that men are also proportionately more likely than women to share resolutions with their spouses or others (41% of men versus 29% of women). Success in any given goal is much more frequently achieved when the goal is widely known and shared. What if everyone at the Superbowl party knew you were trying to lose 10 pounds? Would you be less likely to go for a third serving of the chili-cheese dip? If your family knew you had committed to one cigarette every 6 hours, you might be less likely to join your cousin in the garage for smoke-breaks. That's why sharing your resolutions is so important.
With some preparation and forethought, you can keep those resolutions. Be firm, but kind, with yourself, remembering that it takes 3 weeks of fairly consistent effort to cement a new "routine." Every step you take toward achieving a goal, no matter how small, is a significant improvement, and can't be wiped out by a small misstep. Get back on track, and take it one step at a time.
Let's get to work!
