New Year Resolutions

So, with Christmas now behind us for 2019 the focus shifts to reviewing all that happened during the year and making resolutions on what we want to change or do better in 2020. While we may feel energized and committed to our goals or the New Year resolutions that we make, are we setting our selves up for failure or disappointment? Something that people need to consider when setting goals like wanting to lose weight, get fit, get out of debt etc. are the stages of change.

If you’ve never heard of the stages of change, I will give you a brief background. I’m sure you all know that it isn’t really the case that people decide on News Year’s Eve that they want to get fit and then they stick with that goal until it is achieved, meaning we see many people fail to meet their goals and quickly revert to old patterns of behaviour. The stages of change we are said to move through are precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and termination. At the different stages we need different things such as in the earlier stages it is all about information, it is through seeking and evaluating this information that we decide we should take action, with the aim of eventually preparing to take action and then actually doing so.

In relation to a New Year's resolutions we already have a desire to change, meaning we have acknowledged that out behaviour is somehow problematic for us. This is something that happens when we are in the contemplation stage. We start to weigh up the pros and cons and plan to change the behaviour within the next 6 months.

When we move into the preparation stage, we will be ready to start taking action in the next 30 days and we start making small changes believing it can lead to a good outcome. Then the action stage is where we have recently changed our behaviour and we intend to continue with these changes. This could involve stopping problem behaviours or starting to engage in healthier ones. But what often happens is these earlier stages are skipped or rushed, we think that the energy that comes with the time of year will sustain our will power, that this year will be different, and we will stick it out till we reach our goal. Then we end up really disappointed when we can’t do it.

But change is not that simple. Even once we have progressed through these steps, are in the right frame of mind and we are making progress towards our goal and changing our behaviour, this is not the end, we still have to maintain these changes. It can take time to change or break a habit, in fact it has been suggested that it can take 66 days to form a new healthier habit such as doing a morning jog or eating fruit for lunch. Then once we have established these new behaviours or habits, we need to maintain them to ensure we don’t relapse to an earlier stage.

If you are lucky enough to reach the stage where there is no chance of relapsing or reverting to your old, unhealthy behaviour, be it spending too much money, eating bad food, drinking or spending too much etc. you would be in the termination stage. But most people don’t reach this stage and find that they need to maintain their new behaviours. This is why, to set ourselves up for success it is important to consider which stage of change we are in, rather than what time of year it is and what everyone else is doing and to set Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely (SMART) goals, more on this next time.