Resolution Rant

Happy New Year's! It's January 1st. Time for my annual rant about the pointlessness of New Year's Resolutions!

Have you made any resolutions? Decided that Sunday was a good time to make a change? Thought that a new calendar brings with it skinniness, wealth, and happiness?

No?? Yes???

Ok, then. I have a secret.

It doesn't work that way!

Anyone who decides to change something just because it's January, the 1st, or they hung a new calendar is not going to succeed.

Unless you're my mother-in-law. One year, she resolved to "get fit". Or something like that. She began by dancing around in her kitchen to music she liked. Then she took an aerobics class. Then she TAUGHT an aerobics class. She ended up being an aerobics instructor full time. She even returned to college and got a degree! She's certified to teach many different types of exercise, swimming, and CPR. (I hope I'm getting all of these details right!) She also does personal training.

She IS the 1%.

The (approximate) 1% of people who make a New Year's resolution and stick to it. (The 1% is my number because you know that 79.5% of all statistics are made up on the spot, right? ;)

The rest of us, well, let's just say it doesn't usually work out that way.

So here are my 3 guidelines for making changes that will actually become CHANGES. That you'll stick with and incorporate into your daily life.

1. You gotta get mad!
To paraphrase Dave Ramsey, you've got to get sick and tired of BEING sick and tired! You have to put some emotion into it. You've got to get mad at the problem! You have to decide, once and for all, that you're not going back to that dress size, that food, that significant other, that job, that crappy situation. That whatever you have to do to change things is ok because it's easier than staying where you are.

2. Start small.
So I'm going to exercise every day this week. WRONG! You're going to tell yourself to exercise 2 days this week. Then 3 days next week, Then 4, etc. OR, you can also tell yourself, I'm going to exercise today. And not worry about tomorrow. Then tell yourself the same thing tomorrow. Take it one day at a time. Rome wasn't built in a day and these habits you're trying to change won't be changed in a day. We tend to get off course not by making one huge wrong turn but by making many small ones.

3. Describe your first step in actual words.
Make it a step you can do. "Yell at my family less" is very vague. Try something like, "count to 10 before calmly asking them to pick up their coats." Same thing with "exercise more". What does that look like? Rephrase it to say "walk on treadmill for 20 minutes while baby naps." (heh, heh, yes that's mine. Not off to a good start. I'm blogging instead!)

Change IS possible. New habits CAN be formed. They can even begin on January 1st. But they are more likely to begin when YOU decide they're going to begin. Whether that's January 1st, Feb 23rd, July 18th or any time in between. You'll change something when YOU decide it's time to change.

So don't feel bad if the resolution thing just doesn't work for you. It doesn't work for me. Nor for most people. But don't lose hope. Change is possible but YOU have to decide that it's possible!