Rethink on "New Year Resolutions..."
Wishing you all a happy New Year, good health, good friends, and the love and support of those close to you.
Now that we’re in 2022, many of you will be thinking about New Year Resolutions. Right? The most common resolutions concern weight loss and/or health related matters, with people vowing to bulk up / lose weight / eat better / eat less take-away and so on. If you’re like most people, though, those resolutions quickly fade away (often by late January) and remain unfulfilled.
Why is this so?
Most resolutions have a “should” attached to them. Often, the presence of a “should” indicates that motivation for change is externally driven. In our society, for example, medical information available to us all is consistent about the adverse effects of excess body weight, or the need to eat more fruit, exercise more and so forth. Until we internalise that external message (expectation, rule) and adopt it as our own, we are unlikely to succeed.
Another reason why resolutions may not be sustained over the long term is that often one resolution has many other factors (sub-resolutions) which may be hidden. For example, if your resolution is to lose weight by exercising more, some items attached to the primary resolution (weight loss) may include allocating sufficient time for exercise; balancing work, family, children and other responsibilities, developing a support group to assist you with motivation and so on. If you struggle with accomplishing all your daily tasks, finding an hour for exercise will appear too hard, and your motivation to exercise more will wane over time.
Resolutions, like most things in life, can be achieved, but require structure and planning. Want to talk about it? Call me!