Resolve to Make Resolutions Work

I hear it from my clients, friends, even passing acquaintances, “I don’t do resolutions.”

Apparently resolutions have, over the years, gotten a bad wrap. My best guess is that comes from the fact that they are easy to create and awfully hard to execute.

So what to do? Well, instead of being black and white about them, I think figuring out a more moderate, reasonable approach is the way to make resolutions work.

How? State what your overall objective is and then, after some brain storming, set a specific, measureable goal that puts you closer to the bigger objective.

“What does one look like?” asks the lady in the back of the room.

Well let me give you an example by first showing what a bad resolution, the kind that gets abandoned after a few days or weeks, looks like.

I WILL DO MORE SOCIAL THINGS

Yeah, that is doomed for failure all right. What makes me say that? First, “more”; what does more mean? That has to be refined before you can go further. How many times a month, or even better, week, can you be expected to get out of the house?

The next question is what is a social “thing?” This needs to be more clearly defined. For example, it could be going to an organized event at a community center or a fitness class or book club—or all of those if your evenings are free.

In sum, being specific about the rate and the activity you want to participate in is crucial to success. Then you need to put it into play as soon as you can. Try it for a month and see how it is working. You may find it to be too easy or too hard or not what you thought it would be. But the key is not abandoning the goal, but refining it further to make it a workable part of your life.

Well I have to go—my goal is to incorporate at least one Pilates class into my fitness schedule at least once a week.

What’s yours?