December 2005

Psychologists tell how to keep New Year’s resolutions

If you’ve failed at keeping your New Year’s resolutions in the past, research suggests that it may have to do with the goals you’ve chosen and how you implement change, reports the January issue of the Harvard Health Letter.

The newsletter suggests:

1. Don’t have too many goals.

2. Be specific. Don’t set goals that are too vague, such as being a better spouse.

3. Keep goals realistic.

4. Match your own interests and values, rather than those that reflect outside pressures or expectations. In other words, you’re more likely to keep a resolution if the motivation is coming from you, not someone else.

5. Come up with a practical strategy for achieving your goals.

6. Tie the desired behaviors to common events or to habits you already have, so the new behavior becomes more or less automatic.

7. Assess your tendency toward perfectionism. Researchers report that subjects with perfectionist tendencies that are integral to their personalities fare well with step-by-step plans for pursuing a goal. But the practical steps backfired for perfectionism driven by a need to reach expectations set by others.

The bottom line: Pick your resolution carefully and back it up with concrete strategies about how to achieve it.

Source: Harvard Health Letter www.health.harvard.edu/health.

Industry News from:
Chiropractic News from: