Prevent Your New Year’s Resolution from Slipping Away

Did you set a New Year’s Resolution? Exercise more? Lose weight? Eat better? Be healthier? Now, only a few weeks through January, you feel the probability of reaching you goal slipping away?

My objective in 2006 was to become a more efficient small business owner. In order to reach my goal, I needed the guidance of an expert and I needed someone to witness my challenges, set backs and successes. To find this guidance, I signed up for a local small business group with Mikelann Valterra (www.womenearning.com). She helped me to understand the emotional issues of running a small business, as well as look at the assumptions I have made about making money as a small business owner. I highly recommend her group if you feel you are not earning up to your potential. She provides—among other excellent resources—some great statistics.

The American Society of Training and Development did a study on the probability of a person reaching a personal goal. Here are the statistics for a typical New Year’s resolution of exercising more.
The percentage of people who successfully reach their goal if they:
Hear an idea such as exercise is good for your health—10%
Consciously decide to adopt the goal such as name it as a New Year’s resolution—25%
Decide they will do the goal such as walk for 30 minutes three days per week—40%
Plan how they will do the goal, such as write it into their calendar—50%
Commit to someone else that they will do it, such as tell their friend—65%
Have a specific accountability appointment with another person, during which they can review what they were able to do towards their goal—95%.

I see the truth of these statistics all the time with myself and in my practice with my clients. When we set a goal, and a regular meeting is made to review what was accomplished towards the goal, we have more confidence, more patience, more self-esteem, a better ability to set realistic goals and more self compassion. In other words, when we are accountable to other people, the goals we set for ourselves are easier and less stressful to achieve.

I encourage you to think about how you can improve the statistical probability for completing your New Year’s resolution. If you have health goals that you need assistance with, I am offering three services at Dynamic Paths that might assist you:
1. Individual Appointments
2. A Wellness Group once a month, starting in February.
3. Speaking engagements with a group that you organize at your home or at work about food and mood and how it relates to overall wellness.
Call for more information, 206-579-2757.