Why, the Percentage of People Whose New Year Resolutions fail-- which, by the way, is a whopping 92%!!!!!!!!!
HOW DO WE AVOID FALLING INTO THIS FAILURE TRAP????
We all do this: I'm going to achieve X, Y, and Z this year!!! But are X Y and Z realistically attainable by good faith effort? If not, you may be setting yourself up for disappointment, setting a negative tone for further promises to self.
But we can avoid this by taking the following suggestions into consideration!
1) Do not set goals that are almost impossible to achieve-- we don't want to start the year off with largely insurmountable precipices to climb~ as this may set us up for failure.
When it comes to weight loss and fitness, people often set goals that are too far-fetched, leading to an almost immediate failure to achieve, and locking us into a negative expectation cycle...
INSTEAD, set "BABY STEP" goals, and MAKE SURE you stick to them from the beginning-- this sets us up for a POSITIVE FEEDBACK CYCLE, where the positive feeling of achievement leads to further motivation to continue to persevere and achieve the next "baby step" goal... and on and on...
e.g., NOT I want to lose 50 / 20 / 10 / 5 pounds
BUT RATHER, This week, I will work out at least 3 days
And I will eat healthily at least M-F
Then if that works out, do the SAME THING THE NEXT WEEK
2) PHONE A FRIEND: Find a MUDDY BUDDY-- someone who's willing to make a SIMILAR GOAL OF ACHIEVEMENT, who's willing to fight in the trenches with you, get down and dirty like in a Tough Mudder competition (hence, the "muddy" part), and who WON'T LET YOU FAIL by keeping the pressure up--
Very often, it's all about ACCOUNTABILITY-- but accountability to ourselves is often not enough, we need the accountability of not wanting to let our Muddy Buddy down!
3) SET A POSITIVE TONE FROM THE BEGINNING!!!!
Our minds are very powerful-- in fact, our brains are like a computer on auto-pilot-- if we feed it a positive tone, WE WILL ACHIEVE OUR GOALS!- it will spit back positive results. However, if we feed it negative info-- "I'm not likely to pull this off," or "I've failed in the past with achieving my goals, so why will this be any different," YOU'LL END UP BACK IN THE NEGATIVED FEEDBACK CYCLE.
SO THIS YEAR, PROMISE TO BE POSITIVE each day-- Even try incorporating some Buddhist wisdom:
Be MINDFUL of your thoughts,
Observe, without judgment, the negative thoughts, and with compassion, replace these negative thoughts with POSITIVE ONES-- like the little train that could, "I THINK I CAN, I THINK I CAN"
Remember to invoke SOLID EVIDENCE when necessary-- think of times in the past when you have been successful, and remember you are the same person who did that, so now you can DO THIS as well!
Best wishes for a HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!
