Successful Resolutions for 2010
Have you made your resolutions for 2010? Here is something you might want to consider . . .
Tip of the Week: Start the New Year right! Instead of making a long list of resolutions (that you probably won’t keep anyway) focus on one resolution, and give it your all!
The New Year seems to ignite a spark in most of us to make changes. . . start anew! In thinking about this week’s article, I decided the most important thing I could share with you as we begin 2010 is my experience with people and their quest for change. Having counseled hundreds of people in the change process, I have witnessed both those who have been successful in reaching their goals and those who fell short.
One characteristic that seems to prevail in the success stories is setting realistic goals. When goals are realistic, they are more likely to be attained. Unfortunately for many of us, however, being realistic takes a back seat to speed and quantity. We want to accomplish much and do so as quickly as possible. This impatience often leads to dire consequences—burnout and reversion to our pre-goal state. In other words, back to square one!
Think about it. How often in the past have you been pumped up to make changes in your life only to be subjected to the following scenario? With enthusiasm at its peak, you devise a long list of things you vow to change in the upcoming year. Sure, the list is long you tell yourself, but I can do it. I’m ready!
So you faithfully attack your list for a week or two—perhaps more, perhaps less—giving it your all, and congratulating yourself on a job well done. You’re totally exhausted, but it seems to be working for you. Then reality sets in. (After all, you do have a life to maintain outside this list.)
You try to maintain the intensity necessary for all of those changes while keeping up with your normal daily activities, but it’s overwhelming. Something has got to go. And because daily living activities have been a part of your life far longer than the newly acquired change activities, the daily ones prevail. Your change activities are on the endangered list.
The decline may start slowly (or it may be abrupt). Regardless of the time frame, the result is usually the same—eventually the list is abandoned. You’re back to square one!
And while this scenario isn’t true for everyone, in my experience it has been true for the majority.
In keeping with the goal of this site not only to provide “tips” but also the means to incorporate them into everyday living, a 4-step process has been provided below to help you make changes in 2002.
Step 1: Select 1 thing (there will be plenty of time for additional changes after you have mastered this first one) that you would like to change in the upcoming year. Make it as specific as possible. (For example: rather than stating that you will exercise more often—which is a general statement—state that you will take a ____minute walk __times per week. You fill in the blanks according to what you are willing to do, but the point is that you specify how you will accomplish this increase in exercise.
Step 2: Make sure the resolution selected in Step1 is something of great importance to you and is fairly easy to attain. In other words, don’t set yourself up for failure. You will need to be committed to this goal in order to succeed. Save the more difficult goals for later—after you’ve experienced long-term success with your first.
Step 3: Start to work this change into your daily routine. It is important that if you forget a day—or for whatever reason elect not to include it for a day—that you don’t give up or abandon your plan. This is only a small step backward, and one which most of us experience. Tomorrow you can return to your forward progress.
Permanent lifelong change is possible. For most of us it entails realistic goal setting and persistence in achieving them.
Here’s to 2010—may it be a healthy and life changing year for you!