A few weeks have passed since January 1. Have you already fallen off the New Year’s Resolutions wagon? The Journal of Clinical Psychology recently reported that 48% of people in the US make New Year’s Resolutions. Only 8% of those people successfully achieve those resolutions.
Why are resolutions so hard? One word-CHANGE! Even though we say we want change, once we realize the hard work it takes to actually produce change, we don’t want change so badly after all. Change is hard work. It takes intentionality. We don’t fall into change by accident. Now, some change is forced upon us. We have birthdays every year whether we like them or not. We may get laid off or lose a loved one. But, personal change, the kinds of changes hoped for in New Year’s Resolutions, those take work. And lots of it.
Here are some stumbling blocks to New Year’s Resolution keeping:
LACK OF A PLAN.
We often hope change will just happen. We hope that one morning we will just wake up and LOVE exercise. We wish we could just put down the cigarettes and never have a craving to put them to our lips. We have to have a plan. We have to think about what little bit we will do every day
WE SET UNREALISTIC GOALS.
If you didn’t do a bit of exercise in 2012 and you decide you are going to exercise 5 days a week in 2013, you are already setting yourself up for failure. Start with baby steps. Perhaps your first goal would be to exercise one day a week in January. Then, you can kick it up a notch in February to two days a week. Or, if you reach your goal in the first two weeks of January and are ready to bump up your goal for the last two weeks of January, pat yourself on the back and add another day.
WE DON’T TRACK OUR PROGRESS.
Let’s say you have a goal to write a book this year. You’ll need a plan. It’s quite an undertaking and there are numerous approaches and steps to get you from ideas in your brain to a book on the shelf at Barnes & Noble. So, you put together a plan. And then it sits there. You may do a few things here and there, but if you’re not revisiting your plan and tracking your progress, you may forget about the goal altogether or it may just remain a pipe dream. Cross off the things you’ve done and keep track of your progress.
FIND WAYS TO MOTIVATE YOURSELF.
If weight loss is your goal, find ways to motivate yourself. Maybe it’s posting encouraging notes on your mirror in the morning. Maybe it’s only weighing in once a week or once every two weeks. Maybe it’s giving yourself a “free day” to look forward to where you cannot be so rigid in your exercise or food intake. Maybe it’s buying a new bathing suit in your realistic size and hanging it up next to your treadmill. Perhaps it’s asking for encouragement from a mate or accountability partner. Figure out what motivates you (and it CAN’T be food) and put it into part of your plan at key points to keep you going.
WE DON’T CELEBRATE OUR SUCCESSES.
Often, we tend to look ahead at the other 20 steps that need to happen to complete the project and we don’t celebrate the progress we’ve made. Checking off steps one and two are better than nothing, right? And, you’re two steps closer to your goal, right? CELEBRATE! The same can be said for quitting smoking or losing weight. Celebrate the little victories and pat yourself on the back. Any step closer toward your goal is progress and should be celebrated! Otherwise, you’ll grow discouraged that you aren’t closer to your goal or still have so much more to do and throw in the towel.
The biggest key to success is having a plan you can stick with for the long haul. And, if you blow it one week, cut yourself some slack and get back on the plan the next week. You can achieve your goals if they are realistic and you get over the excuses!