Tips for Making Your New Years Resolution Work! By David Junno Psy.D. Many of us make New Year’s resolutions few; of us keep them. In their article “If at First Your Don’t Succeed”, Polivy and Herman cite statistics that:
· 25% of New Year’s resolutions will be abandon in
first 15 weeks
· The average number of time’s a New Years resolution is made is 10
· Those who manage to make a resolution that lasts for 6 months or more have often tried 5 or 6 times before finally succeeding
· Many New Year’s resolutions are for health related goals
***************************************************** Three most important elements of a good resolution: Goals, Goals, Goals! *****************************************************
------------------------------ Have appropriate expectations. ------------------------------
Setting right goal is everything. Too often we set our expectations too high. The result is it is harder to meet them. This in turn can lead to increased discouragement, which can lead to less motivation in future. One area people often set
unrealistic goals for is weight loss.
As Polivy and Herman point out, people either have too high expectations for how much they lose, or they expect too much from losing it. Genetics accounts for approximately 70% of our weight. There is a limit to how much we can expect to lose. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try if it is in interest of our health. What it does mean is we will be much more successful with more modest goals.
Just starting a program for healthier living can have results. According to research of Roberts and Barnard, people can experience significant improvements in their health status after three weeks of making dietary changes, even before they have any weight loss.
There is also issue of what we expect from weight loss. Many of us expect weight loss to result in success in relationships, work and improved health. Yes, having a better diet can improve health, even with modest weight loss. However, losing weight is no guarantee of success in other areas of life. If we tie all our hopes for a better life to something like weight loss, we set ourselves up for potential failure. It is unlikely we will achieve these rewards from weight loss alone. If we want to be more successful in relationships or work, we should make those separate goals.
-------------------- Set a learning goal --------------------
Most of us who need to make changes in our lives to improve our health are not yet ready to make those changes. To make successful lifestyle changes requires knowledge, time, and commitment. Leaping in to change before doing necessary preparation is another recipe for failure. Rather than expecting ourselves to make a change right away, we can instead learn about what we need to do to make a successful change.
