Reinforcing Our Resolve to Achieve 2011's Goals

The Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve. At left, a sign announces another public hearing about a proposed motorsports development that would significantly impair the Reserve. photo by Chris Glass

New Year's Eve has always been a time for looking back at what has happened in the past year: the good times, the bad times, the happy times, and the sad and difficult times. But on this day we also look forward to the coming year and the renewal of ourselves that it can bring. Tradition dictates the New Year as a time of rebirth, a time to kick our bad habits from the past and start life anew. Of course we can decide on goals we want to accomplish anytime during the year but they never reach that special status of a New Year's resolution. Making a July 1st resolution just falls flat in comparison. It's a long 'holiday journey' from Halloween to New Year's Day with overindulging in eating, drinking and spending money we may not have. We can often arrive at the end of this time exhausted and burned out. It's not difficult when we're satiated to decide to make some changes. Some of us may even look forward to a little more structure and discipline in our daily lives. So we resolve to make a commitment starting on New Year's Day to reform a bad habit or make a lifestyle style change to improve ourselves, our family life, our community, our country or even our planet.

Surveys by two psychologists on New Year's resolutions (E.T. Miller and G.A. Marlatt) indicate that up to 75% of people fail on their first attempt to make a successful resolution. But why does our strong determination to change things often fizzle out so quickly? What can we do to make sure our attempts at change result in a more permanent modification in our lives? You set yourself up for resolution failure by waiting until the last minute to make your resolutions and then making them based on what is bothering you at the time. It's also a recipe for failure to be too simplistic and frame your resolutions in absolutes such as saying 'I will never do X again.'

Let's say your New Year's resolution is to do a better job of conserving water around your home. First of all make sure this is a goal you're highly committed to and recognize the sacrifices you'll have to make to achieve it. If you're eager to do it then move forward to the next step which is to break down the overall goal of saving water into smaller sub-goals. One way of doing this is to focus on how you could save water in each part of your house: the kitchen, bathroom, laundry room and outside. Water conservation can further be divided into specific behaviors that you could improve upon in each area of your living space. These could include avoiding wasting water, becoming more water efficient, timing your outside water use and recycling water. Plan ahead for the coping strategies you'll need on special occasions, for example when guests stay at your home. Lastly reinforce your behavior changes by monitoring your water bill regularly to see how you're doing.

Whether it's making a New Years resolution to eat healthier, lose weight or live a greener lifestyle it can be accomplished with a little effort, a dose of persistence, a positive attitude and wise choices along the way.

Michael Stevenson is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist.