Comments on: How to Stick to Your New Year's Resolutions

on 12/15/2007 These are great steps anyone can follow and I like the specific details. Ask for God's help with all of this and you will find success. Thank you!

on 12/12/2006 You should check out www.10MillionResolutions.com for a bunch a free guides on how to stick with & be successful at New Years Resolutions.

on 12/12/2006 You should check out www.10MillionResolutions.com for a bunch a free guides on how to stick with & be successful at New Years Resolutions.

on 1/25/2006 I find that goals are better than resolutions. You can break a resolution, but a goal is still a goal.

on 1/25/2006 Psychological studies of successful behavior change observe four phases in a cycle. If you understand these four phases you can more successfully enact change in your own behavior. Relapse is almost always a part of the process, but returning to the other phases of the cycle after relapse helps ensure ultimate success.

The four phases are: contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance.

Contemplation is thinking about the goal of change, having the idea of change and thinking of the reasons which support that change, visualizing the change and considering when and how to change. If you enlist support at this stage, you can let your supporters know that you need help thinking about how to make this happen, not just lectures or demands that you do what you are thinking about. A comment like "I notice you smoke more on weekends or when you are alone," for example, could help you make a successful change whereas "you'd better really quit this time or else you're going to get lung cancer," only reinforces negatives and suggests an expectation of failure.

Preparation: is when the path to change is cleared for action. Emptying the house of junk food for dieters, and joining the gym or researching a gym at the right location. Making the job of change easier for yourself in the next step, that is the preparation process. There is no need to rush this process. You might prepare for a month and if that means you relapse less when you take action that is worth the time.

Action: set a date for action and then take the action you have been preparing for - by now action should be something you are mentally ready for and even enjoy.

Maintenance: this is the stage where failure is most common, but it is important to get right back in to the cycle when you fail. For example, if you miss a trip to the gym, go back at the next planned date, don't try to make up. If the next planned day is not until the next week, use the time in between to prepare again. Buy a new pair of sweatpants or a sports drink you can have while you are working out, make the path back to action even easier to take.

If you find your maintenance has derailed badly - your gym membership lapsed because you failed to pay it this month and it has been three weeks since you went, go back to contemplation - seek the cause of your failure (poor planning? poor execution? feelings of negativity? lack of social support?) and go back into preparation with a new plan of action that takes into account why you failed. If you failed because you were not able to get yourself to go by yourself, join the gym that your most active friend belongs, even if it is farther away. Make a plan to coincide with her schedule. Even if you don't do the same workout you can chat before and get a snack together afterward. Take your new plan into action without shame - relapse is only a part of the normal cycle, not any indication that you will fail.

on 1/25/2006 Progressive realization of a worthy goal yields positive self image. If you break your New Year resolution, keep a positive attitude. Don't tell yourself you're a failure because you broke it, tell yourself you're succeeding because you took the time to attempt it the first place. That's farther than most people go, so you're already on the road to success.

on 1/25/2006 Every New Year's I make 10 resolutions. Some of them I make concrete, as this article suggests, and the others I make more abstract, such as: Be more compassionate. There's no way to measure this - I only can try. I don't believe in making no resolutions just because some of them will be broken!