"This year I'm going to get in shape."
"This year I'm going to get to the gym."
"This year I'm going to lose weight."
Most readers are familiar with the sudden crowds that appear at the gym come January and their gradual disappearance in February and March. This doesn't mean resolutions are inherently a bad thing - they do get people to change behaviors, but why are these changes so often short-lived?
Resolutions are sometimes sweeping statements we make to alleviate the guilt we feel from overindulging at the holidays or the prior year.
Resolutions - at least the ones listed above - are not productive goal statements. They are...
...vague: How much weight do you want to lose?
...immeasurable: How do you know once you are in shape?
...poorly structured: When, how often, and for how long will you go to the gym?
Lacking structure, resolutions often lead those who make them to engage in all-or-nothing thinking. Perhaps after missing an exercise session or two (and this is more likely to happen without a definitive plan), people feel guilty and ashamed, and start to view the lapse in exercise as a catastrophic failure, not simply a temporary setback. Seeing this failure, they throw in the towel, and the gyms empty out in February.
Try turning your resolution into a productive goal and develop a plan of action that you will follow. Some ideas to consider:
- Goals should follow the SMART principle (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely).
- Short-term goals are absolutely essential to meeting long-term goals (aka resolutions).
- Realize that even if you set realistic goals, sometimes you won't be able to meet them. If this happens, be forgiving of yourself and pick up with your plan the next day.
- Sorry for the shameless plug, but also consider hiring a trainer to help you develop goals and a plan that you can stick to.
Happy New Year!
4 comments:
Someone asked me yesterday if I had made any resolutions for the new year. I said that I wrote a few things down but I realize that these are small things that hopefully will get me to my ultimate goal (and resolution?)of practicing a healthier lifestyle. Take my multi-vitamin every day, have one less cup of coffee, stay away from the pastries at the cafe down the street. My hope is that a conscious effort to do these things everyday leads to a pattern that fulfils the resolution.
I think the resolutions you cite are not resolutions but wishes made out of no awareness of what it takes to realize the things being wished for. When we resolve to do something and have no idea what it entails to get there, that we may not have the resources, that's where I think most people fail. We don't lay the groundwork. We don't talk to a trained professional who will identify the steps it will take to reach the goal. We want so badly to get there but have no idea how to go from A to B. You talk about a plan. We need the plan. But do we know we need it? Once we accept that then the resolution comes in: to follow the plan.
And the other thing is taking the very first step. It takes more than a statement made on New Year's Day. Sometimes it takes an epiphany, that what I have been doing all my life and the broken resolutions are just not working for me. And that's where the guidance of the TP or maybe the support of a group can make the difference.
So, it took me forever to get here, but in conclusion, the shameless plug is not so shameless after all. It's a critical piece.
I liked the SMART info as I certainly fall into the "make and break resolutions" camp. It's like summer camp only not as regimented. I think if I change up my thinking and how I plan my resolutions - in more of a lifestyle change as well, I can stick to things. it is helpful to think of them as goals and attainable ones.. not just sweeping statements.
P.S. - I agree it is not a shameless plug - trainer totally helps me when my motivation is shot - if not for trainer and a well placed East Falls work-out facility I would not have this phenomenal body!!
phenomenal body is an understatement, dand! youch. i think the whole idea of accepting that you'll fail sometimes, but that it doesn't mean you have to abandon ship, is really important. i sometimes go with a friend to weight watchers meetings, and they talk about the same idea -- if you eat a bunch of chips and ice cream one day, it's not a big deal. what's a big deal is when you respond to that by thinking that all is lost, so you give up and really start eating a lot of crap. then a few weeks later you resolve to do everything right again, and the cycle begins anew.
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