As a new year begins, many of us are preparing for a time-honored tradition of listing our resolutions for change during the upcoming months. There seems to be something about beginning a new year that brings out the desire for us to plan some type of change for the way we are choosing to live our lives.
At the number one position on many American lists is the resolution to lose some weight. We know that a very large number of our population is over weight and obese by a significant number of pounds.
Socially we interact with people using food as a facilitator for our gatherings. For a wide range of reasons, many of us not only eat too much food quantity, but also eat food that is not especially healthy but tends to taste good and easily puts on the pounds.
For many, if not most, people this resolution to lose weight is not only the first on their list to achieve, it is usually the first one in which a person finds themselves failing even if they had some initial success. As a resolution that tends to stand alone, the success rate tends to be low.
There are some techniques that may help some better achieve this or any other resolutions. The first question for someone to ask himself or herself is if they really want to lose weight and why. Challenging the degree and depth of personal motivation is usually difficult; being honest with self is frequently a life-long struggle.
If one finds that the basis of their resolution is to meet the expectations of others, they usually will experience weaker motivation to achieve. Contrary to social expectations not all of us are born to be rich, healthy, intelligent, beautiful and thin!
If the resolution stands alone and is not integrated with other life changes, the chances for success are also weaker.
One can also be aware that losing weight might have nothing to do with will-power or motivation. For example, there many medications we may be taking which have weight gain as a side effect.
If the resolution stands alone and is not integrated with other life changes, the chances for success are also weaker.
One can also be aware that losing weight might have nothing to do with will-power or motivation. For example, there many medications we may be taking which have weight gain as a side effect.
Based on this premise one can see that their chances of change increase when one is honestly and deeply committed to working for change rather than just wishing something different would happen. Yet many people handle their resolutions list as though it were a wish list and that changes in one’s life happen by some form of magic.
A Hugheyism to recall is: "If you do what you have always done, you will get what you always have gotten."
A Hugheyism to recall is: "If you do what you have always done, you will get what you always have gotten."
While our focus has been on the most popular resolution for the new year, the dynamics for success and failure with other goals for change in one’s life are similar. A diet usually fails for the long haul, because it is short-term focused and not a real change of permanent behavior.
The same is true for any other resolutions we have. To truly work, any resolution needs to focus on the long-term behaviors of how we choose to live. Until this integration truly takes place, we are short-term focused and can easily slide back to the natural (for us) way of behaving.
This tendency for many of us to focus on the immediate gratification of our wants is one reason the resolutions list we prepare in January seems to have the same goals on them year after year. Without the input of effort to make a change work as a integral part of who we are, we usually go through our lives making the same choices over and over.
As always, change and choices to manage them remain our personal challenges.
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