A Better You!

Everyone has a mental list of habits they would like to change, and the New Year seems like a perfect time to start. “New Year, new you” is a phrase you will see repeated in print. But this is just singsong rhetoric. Just because it sounds right to your ear does not mean that it contains any meaningful truth. The year will certainly change, but you will likely be the same person on Jan. 1, 2016, that you were on Dec. 31, 2015.

The statistics are bleak: only 8% of people who make New Year’s resolutions stick to them, and those who don’t usually abandon them after just one week. Unrealistic resolutions are fated to fail. And it is unrealistic to think that you can immediately overcome a habit you have spent years establishing. But is this necessarily harmful? There’s a good chance that it is. If your New Year’s resolution is to eat less, but you have no plan in place — or even if you do have a plan and you fail — you will do damage to your sense of self-worth. If you already have a complicated relationship with food, your likely coping mechanism for failure is eating more food. Thus the New Year’s resolution to eat less can actually result in your eating more. Ditto drinking, drug use, smoking, finding a mate, exercising, etc.


With all of that said, you can be a BETTER version of you, and spend the year making that happen with smaller, more attainable goals!    Here are a few options to try out if you are determined to make some changes this coming year!!!

1. Break your bigger goals into smaller goals, this way you can see progress as you go and keep your motivation to reaching your resolution.


2. Write it down and post it anywhere and everywhere. Perhaps when you make your New Year's resolution you will write them down. Try to write it down again and again in big bold letters that you will see each day.  Repetition is the key to helping keep your resolve going.  Read these notes each and every day to remind yourself of your resolutions!


3.  Reward yourself!  Give yourself a pat on the back and buy something new or treat yourself to something!  That way you don't feel as if you are being deprived of whatever it is that youre trying to change!


4. Keep track how you are doing. In addition to re-writing your goals, tracking your progress is another way to stay constantly reminded of your resolution.


5.  If at first you don't succeed......keep on trying. Be the little engine that could and say "I think I can, I think I can.....I know I can, I know I can".  Keep trying until you know you can do it. If you make a mistake and lose some focus, don't lose faith.

6.  Don’t tie your list to any specific date, and don’t wait a year to start again when you slip up!


Take Small Steps!  You don't have to make these changes in the first two weeks of the New Year!  Take your time and focus on "why" you want to make these changes and it be easier to do! 


Good luck and Have a Very Merry Christmas!!!  See You Next Year!