From the Today show, a video about setting one word for your New Year’s Resolution.
Original page is here.
Setting Realistic Goals During the Holidays
It’s okay to change your goals due to circumstances.
Simply because you have set a goal does not mean you are never allowed to change it.
As we move deeper into the holidays, it might be more difficult to stick to your goals (such as losing weight). That’s not a rationale for “giving up,” rather it’s an indication that you might want to adjust. After all, sticking to your program in January, when everyone else is doing it; is much easier than in December, when you feel like you’re all alone.
Adjust your goal to meet the conditions. Be realistic.
A goal “etched in stone” can be an excuse to give up when things get tough. Flexibility can be helpful.
You set the goals. They do not set you.
Out of the Fog: Four Observations about Bad Habits
Forgotten habits exist right under the skin.
We think we’ve got them licked, but they’re always immediately beneath the surface, ready to emerge whenever we get careless or ignore their symptoms. Or look at them this way: We never get rid of them; we put them into deep freeze and can defrost them whenever we get sloppy.
We would all like to think we have “our acts together,” certainly in how we present ourselves to others. As I said we would like to think that, but equally certain is that within each of us there is a nagging — oft times scolding — inner voice pointing out our shortcomings; loath to congratulate and pretty darn quick to disparage. No one likes being critiqued with unrelenting regularity, so what do we do?
Simple, like teenagers not wanting to be scolded by critical parents, we tune it out. Call it “denial;” call it “defense mechanism;” or call it “mental health,” after all, a rose by any other name…
However, despite what children protest, sometimes, we parents know of what we speak and the warnings we provide could save them a bucketful of hassle — if only they’d listen. Alas; they, as did we, find out too late.
Being a “wrinkled kid,” I ignored my internal parent and was unintentionally thawing out some past routines.
It began innocently enough with five little words (six, if you count the contraction as two): “One small bite won’t hurt.”
And it doesn’t.
Neither does the next; or the next, or even the fourth. But upon the frightful realization that I had waded in so deeply I could no longer see the shoreline, I needed to face reality.
How to be Happier – Quickly
Where you are in life is basically the result of the behaviors and choices you have chosen to do and take so far.
Those choices are based in large part on how you viewed the world at the time, which is what we call “attitude.”
Your attitude is “the complex interaction between feelings and beliefs that affect how you view the world – and therefore how you react to it.” Therefore, your attitude is made up out of feelings and your beliefs, which stem from your thoughts.
So, to make your life happier, take a moment to make your next thought happier.
Repeat whenever possible.
Be With Those You Admire
Be around friends and people who exemplify the character and success you wish to achieve.
One of the surest indicators of how well we do at anything is who we hang around with.
For example:
- If you wish to be healthier, hang out with healthy people.
- If you wish to be happy, hang out with happy people.
- If you wish to be appreciative, hang out with grateful people.
If you’re having trouble finding others who share your sought-after goals or attribute – you can be the first one.
(Others will find you.)