Thursday, January 5, 2012

The Top 3 Reasons New Year’s Resolutions Fail and What You Can do about it


So, here we are on day 5 of 2012. If you decided, like millions of people, to set a New Year’s resolution, I hope your new behavior changes are going well. In my previous two blog posts, we discussed the first 2 of 3 reasons why New Year’s resolutions often fail – as often as 77% according to a 2007 survey. The third and final reason can be the most challenging, which relates to our own failure to commit to changing our habits.

Reason #3 – You are not committed to your resolution and you don’t believe you can succeed

This reason is related to reason #1, if your resolution is centered on something for which you have no commitment, you will not succeed. Your resolution must have personal relevance and meaning to you. The only way to maintain your motivation beyond that initial burst of enthusiasm to become a long-term lifestyle or behavior change, is to find something that is very important to you.

Self control is very dynamic and changing. There is a saying that whether you believe you can or believe you can’t, you are right. It is easy to make excuses for ourselves – I can’t stop smoking because all my friends do it and they tempt me. When you are fully committed, and you believe you can succeed, nothing can get in your way.

The challenge for successfully upholding your New Year’s resolutions is three-fold:

> Find something that has meaning to you that you really want to change. Clarify to yourself the reason WHY you want to make this change.

> Make a measurable goal that includes a step-be-step plan. Also, build into the plan what you will do when you have a set-back and how you will re-motivate yourself to get back on-track.

> Believe in yourself and commit all your efforts and motivation to success!


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