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My post on making S.M.A.R.T. resolutions at Food Network’s HealthyEats.com inspired me to take the “resolution” advice two steps further. I wanted to provide insight not only about how to make effective New Year’s Resolutions, but also how to make sure they STICK. Your resolutions should be goals that you are striving for every day, every month of the year until you reach them or modify them. In other words, they should not be a wistful memory by Martin Luther King day or Valentine’s day.
Tip 1: A resolution is a CHOICE to change. You can make a resolution any time…it just happens that New Years’ is a popular time to do it. But you do NOT need to wait for a special day or time to make a change. True change happens in an instant and results happen when we STICK to our CHOICE to change.
Tip 2: Set S.M.A.R.T. resolutions with Tip 1 in mind. It needs to be a change you are willing and able to make consistently! To learn more about these types of resolutions, check out my article at HealthyEats!
Tip 3: Make your S.M.A.R.T. resolutions into process-based goals. Very often our resolutions are “outcome-based” such as: “I want to lose 50 pounds” or “I want to have more energy”. Another, non-health related outcome-based goal most people have is, “I want to make more money.” The problem is, we can’t really control outcome-based goals directly. We need to TAKE ACTION to achieve them.
The key to achieving outcome-based goals is to create “process-based” goals that revolve around ACTIONS you can do consistently to get you to your outcome goals. Examples are:
“I will exercise four days a week”
“I will eat one more serving of vegetables every day”
“I will have one less can of soda/coffee every day”
So as you develop your S.M.A.R.T. resolutions for 2012 remember these two ideas:
Understand that a choice to change starts the second you act differently, regardless of the date on the calendar
Make at least 2 process-based goals that you can take ACTION on to get you there!
To all of my readers, a happy, healthy and successful 2012! I have some process-based goals to get me there too 🙂