3 Simple Ways To Make That Resolution Stick - Langlands Health ...

Don?t let this year?s resolution slip through your grasp. Image via Maria Ly

Have you survived/revelled in the endless excess of the festive season and are now ready to make good on your hastily conceived New Year?s Resolutions? Here are 3 useful tips to prevent the ever-so-common decline in motivation that causes most people to give up after a couple of weeks.

1. Be Specific

The major failing in most people?s resolutions are their tendency to be one-sentence statements of a very vague desire or ideal. Two perennial New Year?s resolutions are excellent examples of this ? ?get fit? and ?lose weight?. Both of these are fine as starting points, but in order for them to be useful we need to drill down to some specific goals or targets relevant to the individual ? you!

Start with an overarching long term goal. Close your eyes and imagine yourself in a year?s time ? what would you like to have achieved in that time?

• If your starting aim was to ?lose weight? ? What do you look like in this ideal future? What clothes are you wearing? How would you like to feel?
• If your starting aim was to ?get fit? ? What challenges have you completed? What sport do you now play regularly? How do you feel?

Take these ideas and distill them into the most important goal for you, write this down and pin it somewhere you will see it regularly.

Next, break this main goal down into medium term goals, designed to get you there. Make these 6 month targets, more easily achievable ? again write them down and pin them up.

Lastly, use the medium term goals to fashion at least 4 short term goals, designed to be achieved in the next 3 weeks. These will serve as your initial targets and will help provide the momentum needed to get your progress kickstarted.

2. Be Organised

?A goal without a plan is just a wish? ? Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Ne?er a truer word said! Goal-setting is extremely useful and will provide the bones for your year-of-living-better, but without the meat of proper planning to add to it, its destined to collapse in a heap.

Take a look over your goals again. What do you need to do to achieve these myriad desires? Convert your goals into actions ? need to learn how to row to be able to cross the channel next year? Join a rowing club. Seriously though ? one of the most important things you can do is to apply the same level of organisation to your home life, as I bet you already apply to your work life. Timetable in exercise sessions, if you miss one because the kids need an emergency pick up from a party?rearrange it (the same way you would rearrange a meeting or work appointment). If improving your health is your goal, then the knock-on benefits to the rest of your family will be worth it and much appreciated.

3. Get Help

This is the section where you roll your eyes and think ?here comes the sell?. In a way you?d be right ? if improving your health and fitness is something you want to target this year, then I can provide a lot of support and mentoring throughout that process (that?s my job and I?m good at it).

However, if you are of an independent bent, ?help? may constitute a book, website or even a friend to join you on your way. Equally, if your resolution is to stop smoking, ?help? may equal a smoking cessation group. Your resolution is much less likely to fall by the wayside if you are consulting someone throughout your journey (apologies?god I hate that word, but here it works). Everyone needs to seek advice at some point, actually having someone there to share your concerns or doubts with will make a massive difference to your chances of success.

Ultimately you have to decide what works for you. You are an individual and what is effective for one person, won?t necessarily be as effective for the other. Revisit your goals every month, adapt them to your progress. Change your plan to meet your revised goals, consult others when necessary, and most importantly? Keep on keeping on!

Slainte mhath!

Alasdair

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Source: http://www.langlandshealthandfitness.com/2013/01/3-ways-resolution-stick/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=3-ways-resolution-stick

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