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Changing Habits: How to Make and Keep New Year’s Resolutions

For most of us, New Year’s Resolutions come and go. Things seem just to get in our way and the very behavior we pledge to change ends up going by the wayside. In order to prevent another year of broken promises and unresolved change, there are several steps you can take now to unleash yourself from this endless cycle and actually change the status quo.

Setting smart and attainable goals is a must for making your resolutions stick. Saying you will not smoke another cigarette when you are a chronic smoker is just not realistic. It is best to make your goal achievable in the short-term. Most people lose their focus when their choices for change are workable and realistic.

Trying not to wait to the last minute to set your goal and have a definite plan to deal with temptations, resistances and barriers that come up will help you achieve your resolution. For instance, if you want to start cutting out fat from your diet, it would be important to know how to turn down an offer of a delicious creamy desert, real ice-cream or that delicious layered birthday cake.

Sharing your resolution with close friends and loved ones only helps to reinforce the very thing you resolve to change. Keeping the idea to ride five miles a week on your bike, needs not be a secret and your buddy at work will be the first to ask you how your bike riding is going.

Making a list of why you should or shouldn’t have this goal is another way you can keep motivated and on track with your resolutions. It is important that you keep adding to the advantage/disadvantage list as you proceed through your goal.

Keeping track of your smallest successes is the key to making your resolution happen.

It is also imperative that you find easy and affordable delights to reward yourself during any of these successes.

The essential key to keeping resolutions is to not beat yourself up but continue to imagine yourself changing your behavior.

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© Arlene Unger, Your guide to positive Stress, Relationship, Life and Weight Management.
www.MyPrivateCoach.com
Arlene Unger is the Clinical Psychologist with over 20 years of experience and additional certifications in Nutrition, Sports Psychology, Executive Coaching, Addiction, Nonverbal Therapies, and Communication Disorders Coach at MyPrivateCoach. She can be contacted at info@myprivatecoach.com.
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