Walk on the moon! Ha ha!

Seriously, we are approaching the time of year when everyone will be looking for ways to change things. Some people start this around the holidays, wishing they could lose a few pounds before seeing other family members or wishing they could earn some extra money before Christmas and so on.

But, for most people, it really starts after the holidays with their New Year’s Resolutions.

And, as most of us know, those New Year’s Resolutions don’t stick.

You see, we try but most of us aren’t making a full commitment to sticking to those resolutions. Additionally, we pile on too many things at once. We want to lose 20 pounds, we want to make more money, we want to stop eating this or that, we want to exercise more, we want to spend more time with family, we want to do better with our home business, we want to clean out the closet, etc.

And, we start a few things but then it gets overwhelming and those New Year’s Resolutions get broken and tossed aside.

The problem is that we really haven’t changed our own mentality. Most of the problems are caused by bad habits. We need to break bad habits and replace them with new, good habits. For example, you might want to lose 20 pounds, but if you have a habit of wolfing down a bag of chips while watching TV at night, you’re not going to get there. You might try to start an exercise routine, but, when the pounds don’t come off, you’re back to scarfing down chips at the TV. Why? Because it’s less work and the results are the same! That is, you could exercise and not lose weight or you could not exercise and not lose weight. Which is easier?

Of course, a regular exercise routine can help you shed the pounds, but it will not be effective unless you stick with it.

So, you have to make exercise a new habit. You must make it so that doing it becomes natural to you–a habit. Likewise with any other significant change in your life. The thing is, you didn’t form bad habits overnight. They became bad habits over time. First, you sat down at the TV and had a few potato chips. Then, you had a few more. After a while, those few weren’t satisfying enough. What will a few more hurt? After a bit, you started eating the whole bag and were shocked when the bag was empty!

After that, you were no longer shocked when the bag was empty. That became your new normal. Then, you added dip. And soda.

After a while, you were making a complete fourth meal of chips, dip and soda while watching TV. That didn’t happen overnight. It happened over time.

That’s a tough habit to break. Most people cannot quit that cold turkey. You have to wean yourself down. Start new habits. You could start by swapping out the cola for water or unsweetened iced tea. Replace the chips with a variety with less fat, or substitute popcorn or something else that would be better.

Over time, you can create new habits. With that, you will have more success keeping your New Year’s Resolutions than trying to quit all your bad habits cold turkey and starting with new ones. It doesn’t work that way for most people! If it hasn’t for you, it’s time to try a different approach.

A lot of times, before you can whip your body into shape, you need to whip your mind into shape. This is something that is often overlooked! For more about getting your brain into shape, check out “How to Train Your Mind“, a guide which can help you increase your focus, overcome bad habits and be more efficient in your life.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 at 3:52 pm and is filed under Brain Power. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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