Simple Life Corp - Feature Article
Making and Breaking Those New Year's Resolutions
By Dr. Kevin Polk
Copyright 1999. All Rights Reserved
Have you set your resolutions for the new year?
Going to stop smoking? Going to lose weight? Maybe get in
shape? No matter what your resolution is, how you achieve
it will depend on how determined you are to reach the goal.
So how determined are you? Well, you are determined enough
to make the resolution. At least you know you need to
change something. Lots of people don't.
The fact that you set a resolution means that you are at
least contemplating reaching a goal. Contemplating is good.
You have to do that before you get anything done. Of course
just thinking and thinking and thinking does not get much
done. You need to go past thinking and into "planning." If
you don't chances are you will break your resolution. It
will probably slip out of your thoughts completely. At
least until next December roles around.
So how does one go about planning to accomplish a
resolution? The simplest answer is to think about the
first step you will need to take to toward the resolution.
If you're going to lose weight, maybe you need to see your
doctor. If you are going to write that novel, maybe you
need to set aside time to write. You really need to decide
what that first step toward your resolution will be. Then
plan how you are going to accomplish that first step. You
might even be able to plan steps two, three and four.
Come January you will need to transform your plan into
action. This can be a lot trickier than you realize
because step one in your plan will require that you spend
time. Sounds simple. It isn't. You need to face the fact
that you made the resolution because you have not had
enough motivation to spend time on it so far. That
motivation is not going to come out of thin air; it has to
come from within you. So what is it about this resolution
that is going to motivate you to do it? The bottom line is
that it needs to make you feel good. So imagine how good
you will feel when you accomplish the resolution. Then take
that good feeling and firmly attach it to step one. Don't
let that good feeling go. It's the basis of your motivation
to accomplish each step to your resolution.
Great! You did all the steps and accomplished your
resolution. Have you ever reached a goal and then lost
ground? Lots of people do this with losing weight. They
just can't seem to keep the weight off. One reason for
this is that once you achieve a goal it's easy to lose your
motivation. You don't have that goal in front of you
anymore. What you need is a maintenance plan. Just like
your action plan to get to the goal, you have to stay
motivated. So spend some time imagining how good it will
feel to maintain your goal. Think of your improved
self-esteem. Think of the fact that next December you can
say that you kept and maintained your resolution!
As you can see, there can be quite a bit of mental work
that goes into keeping a New Year's resolution. A lot less
work goes into breaking one. You already knew that. The
difference is that now you will know exactly what mental
work you are avoiding when you break the resolution.
There is one resolution that millions of people have
managed to keep with relatively little effort, however.
They have resolved not to make any more New Year's
resolutions. That resolution only requires a minimum of
contemplating, planning, acting and maintaining. It may be
just the resolution you were looking for!
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Dr. Polk helps people deal with life. Get his free course
in Creative Problem Solving. Sign up at
http://timedoctor.com/lifeskills (note from editor Dec 2002 - we were having trouble connecting to this web site)
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