New Year, New Choices

Well, we’ve hit that time of year when we’re encouraged to put together resolutions for the next 365 or so days. 

Unfortunately, most of us, if we thought much about it, would realize we’re simply recycling the same things from the past several years (or decades!!).  Perhaps that’s part of why such a large number of people break their resolutions within the first month of the new year.

I’ve never been big on New Years’ resolutions, but I do appreciate the periodic review of effectiveness and setting myself back on a healthy, prosperous and/or more interesting track.  And of course, that can happen anytime – not just on December 31 or January 1!  (I like to use my birthday.)

Rather than fixating on the specific things we consider to be deficiencies,  it’s so much more effective to focus on the larger picture.  Successful businesses, while they look at the particulars regarding their success (or failure) in the marketplace, periodically take the opportunity to actually create a larger vision or purpose for themselves, ultimately leading to methodology that allows them to create the results they want. 

I’m thinking this would be a very useful exercise for all of us – sort of a strategic plan for our lives.

When we focus on specific acts (tactics), rather than our overall desired outcome or the plan to get there (strategy), it is much easier to fail.  For instance, having a resolution to give up coffee or sugar is very specific.  But it’s a tactic, rather than a strategy.   And, as soon as you succumb to the sugar or coffee, you have failed in your resolution.

How much more room is there for success when you shift “giving up sugar” to “eating healthy foods”, or “eating mostly unadulterated foods”, or “having natural fruit as a snack”, or even “leaving additional sweeteners out of anything I eat”?  While these last are tactics, too, they are much more broad, and they offer solutions rather than deprivation. 

That’s another problem with resolutions (re-solution – to solve again).  Not only are we attempting to solve something for the second or third or twentieth time, most resolutions are formulated in the direction of deprivation, loss, removal of some pleasure, etc.

While there are those among us who are motivated by fear and loss, most of us are more likely to achieve what we desire when we frame the choice in a positive direction – just like when we write affirmations.  Giving yourself something is always more pleasant than taking something away.  And of course, you can always use both the stick and the carrot – which for some people is an effective strategy, too.

As you think about what you would like to be different in your life this year (or month or week),  kick it up to a higher level than just a tactic by identifying what you are attempting to fix, correct, or what you stand to gain by accomplishing that tactic, not just what you must give up. 

What is the result you are looking for in giving up coffee?  Is it having a natural energetic balance?  Is it getting rid of gastro-intestinal upset?  Is it to calm your nerves?  Is it to keep that extra $4 per day instead of giving it to Starbucks?  Use whatever you discover to create that larger outcome and ultimately to create an overall strategy. 

Once you identify the larger picture for yourself, you can set your natural problem-solving talents on the task of coming up with multiple ways to accomplish that larger outcome.  And in doing that, you will have many more ways to be successful and feel good about your results.

Rather than depriving yourself through your resolutions, I encourage you to offer yourself more choices this year by looking at your own larger picture to develop the new habits you want in your life. 

Good luck, and let me know how you’re doing!!