If you don’t have one yet, start thinking about it now! Waiting until January 1st reduces your chance of success. Here are a few other tips to make your resolution stick.
Be Serious
Making a half-hearted, unrealistic resolution will get you half-hearted, disappointing results. Take your resolutions seriously or don’t make them at all.
Be Confident
Feeling confident that you can change a behavior is absolutely crucial to your success. Make sure what you resolve to do is achievable and realistic for you. Fight back against negative self-talk and use positive affirmations.
Plan the Details
Are you ready? It takes more than just declaring you will lose weight/get fit/eat healthier in 2016. That’s just the first step! What will you do specifically, day to day to make your goal your reality? Plan it out, and write it down. Too many people decide to just ‘wing it’, and that typically doesn’t work too well.
Behavior change is tricky and people are not perfect. Expect that at some point you will probably mess up. How you handle this lapse can make all the difference between complete failure and long-term success. First, think in advance about obstacles or situations that can cause you to get off track and develop strategies to prevent or manage them.
If you find that you did slip up, don’t view it as a failure. Instead, learn from it. What can you do to prevent it from happening again? Remember, behavior change is a process. The only time you really fail is when you give up, so don’t!
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
