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Tips for Making Your New Year's 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:
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25% of New Year's resolutions will be abandoned in the
first 15 weeks.
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The average number of times a New Year's resolution is
made is 10.
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Those who manage to make a resolution that lasts for
6 months or longer have often tried 5 or 6 times before
finally succeeding.
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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 the 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 the 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 weight problems.
There is a limit to how much we can expect to lose. This doesn't
mean we shouldn't try if it is in the 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
the research of Roberts and Barnard, people can experience
significant improvements in their health status after three
weeks of making dietary changes, even before they see any
weight loss.
There is also the 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 the 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.
Set a goal to explore your need to make a health related change, get the facts,
find out what action steps are necessary, realistically assess
the potential obstacles in your life to making these changes.
Use this information to develop your own plan. We tend to
be much more successful following through on plans we make
than ones others make for us.
Focus on what you are going to do
Too many health related changes feel like deprivations. We
are going to give up foods we like, stop smoking, and/or stop
drinking. It is hard to maintain motivation for not doing
things. It is more rewarding focusing on what we are going
to do.
For example, for a diet goal, think about what you can add to your life. If
you need to reduce high fat foods, consider a goal of eating
more lower fat foods. I have a goal of eating more fruit each
day, so every time I want a snack I see it as an opportunity
to have a fruit or some juice. I have also maintained a goal
of eating an extra portion of vegetable with my dinner. This
makes me feel more like I am doing something for myself rather
than just taking something away.
For a goal like stopping smoking, consider doing more activity when normally
you would be tempted to smoke. If you need to quit drinking
consider setting a goal of spending more time with family
or friends, or participation in non-drinking related activities.
Make this the year you get it right
Set appropritate expectations, learn what you need to be successful,
focus on what you want to do, and have a great New Year!
References:
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Polivy, Janet, Herman, C. Peter."If at First You
Don't Succeed." American Psychologist Sept. 2002:
677-689.
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Roberts, C. K., Vaziri, N. D., Barnard, R. J. "Effect
of diet and exercise intervention on blood pressure, insulin,
oxidative stress, and nitric oxide availability.."
Circulation Nov. 12 2002: 2530-2532.
Dave Junno Psy.D. is a psychologist, coach and author of Lowering High Cholesterol
and Reducing Your Risk of Heart Disease- READY OR NOT! To contact him, mail
to: drjunno@drjunno.com or visit his
website
and sign-up for his free e-mail newsletter: Ready or Not.
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