You May Fail, Be a Resolution-ary Anyway

From one of my Facebook friends, love it though a little more to it...

Many people get divorced and many others drop out of college. Did either of these facts affect your decision to ultimately get married or attend college? Each of these endeavors need to be taken seriously but the potential benefits, for many, out weigh the risk. I feel the same way about New Years Resolutions, why pass up an opportunity to experience something because many people, possibly you in past years, didn’t see things through?  Two years ago, I started my pro-resolution campaign with 

In Defense of Resolutions and feel there’s even more anti-resolution propaganda now to fend off.

Last year in Doomed Resolutions (and how to improve them) I talked about some mistakes in revolution setting. If you make the same resolution every year, you may want to rethink it. Let’s take the clichéd but often needed weight loss goal. If for, as far as you can remember, you’ve declared on January 1^st you would loose 20 pounds, some suggestions:

• Be More Modest with Goal Setting (and in life), aim for 5 to 10 pounds, anything more is icing on the cake or a sign you’ve had less cake. The truth is, progress is progress and if it seems too far away anyone can get resolution-fatique.
• A+B+C+D= Weight Loss. Focusing on losing weight is akin to spending all your time saying, “I wish I had a job” versus rewriting your resume, networking or maybe working with a headhunter.  Maybe setting a TV limit or eating fewer take out meals or seeing a nutritionist will you help you with your weight. Sorting out the steps is as valuable as any goal you can set.
• Make Resolutions Positive. Carolyn was asked in this WebMD article about her resolutions and her suggestion was to give resolutions a positive, proactive slant.  One of her resolutions is to cook once a week with her sisters. I’ve talked about cooking goals in Cooking Homework. Other positive goals are to eat more fish, experiment with greens you haven’t tried or to drink more tea.
• Focus on the Health Component. Sometimes, I know it’s shocking, vanity isn’t enough stimulate behavior change. Whether it’s osteoporosis, infertility or cancer prevention your diet and exercise play a role. Changes you make in the name of health or chronic disease will likely have longevity.

The Wall Street Journal had an interesting idea. They suggested “outsourcing” resolutions. Give it a try; in our family the consensus was that my husband needed to leave us all waiting less/be more punctual. For Myles or “Prince Myles” we felt he could do more on his own. Weston could benefit from crying less when his brother upsets him and the shocker was that the family felt “Mom should yell less.” And that’s the danger with asking others what they feel you should work on. Their answers, though truthful, may sting.

I loved an interview I read recently in Yoga Journal. Chip Wilson, the founder of Lululemon Athletica and huge goal proponent said, “to make goals effective you have to fail at them 50 percent of the time.” We should all keep Steve Jobs in mind as we ring start the New Year. Remember Steve and all he accomplished and remember he was a college dropout. Happy New Year.

Where do you stand with resolutions? What do you think of outsourcing them? Any you want to put out there? I’ll check back with you and see how you’re doing.