How to Make healthy (and Successful) New Year's Resolutions
As the old year gears up to bid farewell and that inner voice of reason begins to ponder the negatives that mingle in our life, New Year's resolutions become the traditional promises for positive change in the upcoming year. Most New Year's resolutions are designed with the best intentions of bringing healthful changes to a person's life. It is easy to state the changes that one would like to embrace; however, achieving the goal is another story. In order for a New Year's resolution to be healthy and successful, it is important to set goals that can be realistically achieved.
Remember, habits and behaviors do not just form overnight. The majority of New Year's resolutions are often derived from the overindulging behaviors that one begins to self-analyze through out the month of December. If December was a person, it would be a great enabler of bad unhealthy habits and behaviors. December offers up a platter of tempting situations that find us overindulging in food, alcohol, and, most of all over, spending; and if that is not enough, there is the added bonus of stress and worry. It is generally the stress and worry, during December, which leads to the resolutions for change in the New Year. Unfortunately, not every New Year's resolution is realistically achievable and is often made in haste without an actionable plan.
Therefore, a key to making a healthy and successful New Year's resolution rest upon designing one that is achievable. Once you have chosen that negative behavior that needs to be squashed in the New Year, it is important to approach that change by taking small baby steps in the positive direction. The biggest mistake people make is setting a goal that is too broad, and this almost sets them up for failure and loss of interest. In order to learn how to achieve success with your New Year's resolution, it may be helpful to model them after the following common resolutions.
How many times have you heard a friend or love one say, "My New Year's resolution is to quit smoking?" This is definitely a good decision and one that will bring about health and wellness, but it is a huge goal. Again, New Year's resolutions usually involve changing a negative habit and behavior, and smoking is a habit that involves addiction. So, a smoker just cannot wake up on the first day of the New Year, go cold-turkey, and truly believe they will succeed. If you want to succeed at this resolution, it is better to start off small. Instead of making the resolution to quit smoking, it will be more productive to start with cutting down on how much you smoke, and, before committing to this resolution, map out the approach you will take to lessening the smoking habit.
Another common New Year's resolution that is heard is, "I'm going to lose weight." That's a very good goal for the New Year, especially after the overindulgence of foods we tend to feast on through out the holiday season. However, weight loss is not always easy for everyone to attain. A person that makes this type of New Year's resolution will find more success in achieving it by setting an actual weight loss goal that can be realistically reached in a healthy way. So, the old resolution of lose weight should be transformed into lose 10 pounds. It is an achievable goal, and once it is reached the person will have the motivation to continue on the weight loss path.
When all is said and done, we are human and with being human come imperfections. The main objectives to making a healthy and successful New Year's resolution is keeping in mind your motivation for wanting to change, the ability to set a realistic and simplistic goal, and a willingness to focus on the behavioral change as opposed to the actual goal. Do not just toss up a New Year's resolution for the sake of making one, but instead make one you are truly willing to plan out and work toward.