Making New Year Resolutions Work for You

Why oh why does the media impose those New Year Resolutions on us? This time of year you can’t pick up a magazine or see a morning news show without hearing about resolutions. With a little planning resolutions do work for people and it is really another way of saying you set a goal for yourself. Goals are good, right? Of course right. I personally think we should do them throughout the year, as we need to make changes in our life. One shouldn’t have to wait around for January 1.

To help you make those resolutions, aka goals, here are some tips to help you succeed. By virtue of you reading this, you have already taken steps to setting goals through your participation in the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP), so start with patting yourself on the back and saying “good job”, or better yet, get up, go to a mirror, smile at yourself and say “good job”, then come back here and finish reading.

Commit your resolution and plan to writing in a notebook or journal. You may already be keeping a food and physical activity journal, if you are, start a fresh page and mark it 2010 Goals.

“Fast Facts About New Year's Resolutions
· 63% of people say they are keeping their resolutions after two months
· 67% of people make three or more resolutions
· Top four resolutions:
1. Increase exercise
2. Be more conscientious about work or school
3. Develop better eating habits
4. Stop smoking, drinking, or using drugs (including caffeine)

· People make more resolutions to start a new habit than to break an old one.”

Source: Schwarz, Joel. How to keep up with those New Year's resolutions, researchers find commitment is the secret of success. University of Washington. 23 December 1997. December 20 2007.

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Lao-Tzu
(Chinese philosopher, 604 BC - 531 BC)

Think "Year Round," Not Just New Year's

~Goals are accomplished with tiny steps that occur throughout the year.
~New Year's resolutions should be nothing more than a place to start.
~Develop a ritual or habit for revisiting your plan.
~Don’t expect sweeping changes in the first day. How old are you? Well it took you that long to get where you are today.
~Don’t expect things to radically change overnight.

FACTS:
It takes 7 to 10 tries to finally quit smoking. 1-866-485-QUIT (7848) for the Montana Quitline
A realistic goal for weight loss is 1 to 2 pounds per week

Put some thought into those changes you would like to implement. If you are still thinking on January 2, that’s quite all right. Take some time NOW to think about the coming year and what you would like to do as far as goal setting. Have a strong initial commitment to make a change. By spending some quality time with your thoughts you can be realistic in your expectations.

If your goals are health related, talk to your:
◦Physician ◦health coach ◦DPP Lifestyle Coach
about what is and is not realistic in your plans.

Remain Flexible

My favorite quote “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.” John Lennon

~Expect that your plans can and will change.
~Life has a funny way of throwing unexpected things at us, and flexibility is required to accomplish anything.
~You may need to modify your goal(s).
~Recognize and acknowledge your partial successes at every step along the way.
~It’s all about baby steps and if you get halfway there and have to change mid-stream, well, you reached it mid-way which is more than if you didn’t start at all.

Several years ago, I was at a meeting and the motivational speaker was a man who set out to climb Mt. Everest NOT ONCE but TWICE and each time there was an obstacle that prevented him from reaching the peak. The first time was a life threatening illness and the second was a life threatening blizzard, he was so close each time, too. He evaluated the situations and realized his life was not worth the risk and now he is making big money talking about it. The moral is, he tried.

“If you never try, you'll never know what you are capable of.” John Barrow

According to Miller & Marlatt (1998) the following is recommended to be successful with your own resolutions:

~Have coping strategies to deal with problems that will come up.
~Keep track of your progress. The more monitoring you do and feedback you get, the better you will do.

Ingredients for setting yourself up for resolution failure include:

~Not thinking about making resolutions until the last minute.
~Reacting on New Year’s Eve and making your resolutions based on what’s bothering you or is on your mind at that time.
~Framing your resolutions as absolutes by saying, “I will never do X again.”

My second favorite quote: “That which does not kill us makes us stronger.” Friedrich Nietzsche

With that in mind, be persistent, it will pay off and you will be stronger and healthier.
Happy New Year