Effective new years resolutions

Why most New Years resolutions don’t work and how to do it better

Most people create New Years resolutions around things that they want to stop doing: ‘I want to stop eating junk food.’ ‘I want to watch less TV.’ The wording tends to be in the negative: ‘I want to stop…’ ‘I don’t want to…’ etc. The problem with this is that it causes us to continually focus on what we are depriving ourselves of. This makes our New Years resolution a real chore – something that takes a lot of work and effort to maintain. We also tend to make a resolution once a year and forget about it, much better would be to have a more regular update, say once a quarter and to follow through and check our progress regularly.

So how do you write an effective New Years resolution for better health?

First of all, make sure that you are covering all aspects of your health. I suggest that you pick one resolution in each of the three areas of health: eating, thinking and moving. Pick something that is very small and manageable. Start by picking the things that are easiest for you to change. It will be much easier to make the big changes later on once you have made all of the easy ones. Only pick changes that you are willing to make for the rest of your life. Short-term health changes (like diets) don’t work.

Secondly, make sure that your resolutions are worded in a way that excites you. Talk about what you are going to do rather than not do. Set it in the present tense as if it has already happened, i.e. ‘I love doing weights at the gym every single week.’ ‘I am excited about the new, toned body I have created.’

Thirdly, you need to make sure that you act on this resolution, so write it down and place it somewhere you will see every day. Keep looking at and reading your affirmations for the whole three months. Research shows that if you do something for three months you are highly likely to do it for the rest of your life. At the end of the three months, assess your progress. If you have achieved your goals great, if not you need to decide whether that goal is still the easiest for you to achieve or pick another easier goal.

Either way select 3 new goals and start the process again. Remember, you can do the same for your finances, and your relationships!