New Year’s Resolutions- Helpful or Hindrance?

As we said goodbye to 2012 and hello to 2013, many of us focused on our annual New Year’s resolutions. Whether it’s loosing those extra ten pounds or being a more positive person, resolutions give people hope that the next year will be better than the last. Frequently, resolutions last for the first half of the year. Comfort and acceptance of our flaws yield to vowing this will be the last year of imperfection.

            According to The Journal of Clinical Psychology, less than ten percent of the population reach their goal for the new year. Upon encountering hardship, almost forty percent never make their goal. The remaining attempters strive for a goal that they will partially reach, struggling to stick to it a little longer, but just never get there.

            The five most common New Year’s resolutions are losing weight, saving money, quitting smoking, finding love, and getting organized. Now why do most of these resolutions fail to succeed? Majority of people never accomplish their goals for two reasons, 1. We try to stop “cold turkey” and 2. We set limits on everything all at the same time. A better chance for success involves tossing strict restraints out of the window. Here are some helpful tips to help make it into that ten percent:

Losing Weight- Don’t set a limit on how much weight you want to loose nor set a specific date. Diets mean that they will eventually end when you reach your target weight, often time causing you to regain the lost weight. Why not make eating healthier foods and exercising 3-4 days per week a lifestyle habit? The weight will eventually fall, and stay, off.

   Saving Money- Instead of depriving yourself of something you enjoy, such as that weekly restaurant date or family outing, get rid of something that you don’t need. For instance, do you need every premium channel on cable that costs an extra $50 per month?

  Quit Smoking- Don’t just wait until January 1^st and say that you’ll quit smoking forever. If you quit “cold turkey”, it’s challenging to make that work. Try to slowly cut back from a pack a day, to a half a pack, to a few, to one, then let them fad away.

   Finding Love- You can’t say, “I going to fall in love this year.” Love will show up when you least expect it. Just be patient.

     Getting Organized- If your life is cluttered from school, work, home, or kids, slowly get everything in order. Buy a planner. Write down activities, dinners, play dates, etc. Take a weekend once a month and get things organized in the house. Take baby steps, not large leaps.

When making a resolution, keep in mind that change doesn’t happen overnight. Resolutions take time, effort, and much patience. If you’re not ready to hit a few stumbling blocks, you may not achieve your ultimate goal, so expect to hit a setback or two, all the while keeping your eye on the goal. Remember that the original point of a resolution was to better yourself over time, not create a short term goal to change an imperfection. Devise a plan to change your lifestyle and maintain the goal once reached. This may even take more than one year, but could last a lifetime.