Well, the time has come. 2010 is biting the dust and we welcome in a New Year – and the New Year, of course, brings with it the tradition of “New Year’s Resolutions.”
Some of you may have given up on the tradition – most resolutions don’t make it past the end of January, so what’s the use? Why is that?
It might help if we take a look at what we’re trying to do when we make a resolution – and most resolutions involve making a change in our behavior. We’re either going to stop doing something – or start doing something – that we don’t do, or don’t do consistently.
When we make a resolution what we’re really doing is setting an objective or goal for ourselves to meet. I expect that at least a few of you reading this post have made a resolution that sounds something like this “I’m going to live a healthier life” or “I’m going to get healthy” – something along those lines.
Living a “healthier life” and “getting healthy” definitely involves changing our behaviors. You may even have a general idea of what you need to start/stop doing to make that happen and/or you may have some pretty specific goals in mind.
So why do most of us fail when it comes to keeping our resolutions?
We don’t have a plan. You may argue that point with me – “Yes I do. I’m going to eat more vegetables and walk every day.” That’s not a plan for getting healthy – those are tactics for getting healthy.
What’s the difference? A plan is followed in order to reach those objectives and goals using strategies and tactics designed to achieve those objectives and goals – otherwise known as “Resolutions”. If you’ve identified an objective or goal you need to plan how to reach it.
Using our example of “I’m going to eat more vegetables and walk every day” let me ask you a pretty important couple of questions:
- What ways have you identified to put your objectives and goals into practice?
- How are you going to track and measure your progress?
The “Ways” you are going to achieve your goals are obviously pretty important elements of keeping a resolution. For instance:
- When/where will you purchase your veggies? What veggies will you buy? Do you know what types of veggies you should be eating? How will you cook those veggies? What will you do if you didn’t have time to go buy fresh veggies?
- When/where will you walk? How long will you walk for? Will you walk with another or alone? How much should you walk? What will you do if something comes up and you can’t take your walk when you planned?
“How are you going to track/measure your progress” is an important – if not the most important – element of keeping our resolutions. Having your “Ways” are only one step – you must have the “Means” to document – or “prove” – you are engaging in the behaviors (the “ways”). Not only does measuring and tracking “prove” you are “keeping” your resolutions – they also measure the results of the ways you’ve chosen to achieve your goals.
After all, they may not work as well as you thought they would and need to be adjusted.
Additionally, if we don’t measure what we are doing – and then track that – it is much too easy for us to “fall off track”. Measuring and tracking our progress also helps to keep us motivated to continue along the track we’ve set for ourselves.
So, if you’ve already set your New Year’s Resolutions – or are still putting them together today, they must include developing a plan that both describes the “Way’s” as well as the “means” to keep them.
If this is the first post of mine you’re reading you might be thinking, “That’s way too complicated!” If you’re a regular reader you may be thinking, “I thought you were the ‘Keep it Simple’ guy!”
I still am. Having a plan is what keeps it simple – and doable.
Living Healthy with Richard 