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Home » Lose Weight Fast » Listen, it’s okay to suck at New Year’s resolutions – Kansas City Pitch

Its a new year. Again. And that means our social media feeds will ping with the extra shiny versions of our friends carefully curated efforts to get (and keep) their shit together for a month or two. But what happens to those grand plans come March? Like Thanos snap at the end of Infinity War, half of em will dissolve into dust.

Statistically, it is closer to 80%. Why do most resolutions fail so predictably?

More often than not, we set these enormous abstract goals for ourselvesthings like be healthier, or get out of debt, or stop being a relentless liar, but then we dont break those ideas down into teeny-tiny achievable behaviors.Many people use the acronym S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, time-bound) as a guidepost for their goals. Personally, I like K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid), because I was raised Catholic and respond well to shame.

Many times, one small successful behavior change can have a huge impact on your overall mindset moving forward. Instead of focusing on a giant end-goal of losing 50 lbs. and finally showing your ex just what theyre missing, start small with a singular healthy behavior like drinking a quart of water first thing every morning for a week. Just take it one baby step at a time, grasshopper.

A great resource for this sort of thinking is the book Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg. I checked it out from the library and will most likely renew it three times before returning it unread.

See, I know what Im talking about here.

Editing is hard. Its not fun to narrow down our precious ideas and prioritize them. When it comes to resolutions, its easy to come up with a lot of things you could do and sometimes difficult to land the plane. Take it from me and the mantra I have for tiki drinksone & done.

If you find yourself nailing that one resolution, feel free to add something later, regardless of what month it is.

When Im juggling multiple balls (lol), I love making a list. God, I love a list. I love a list so much that I put things on the list that are already done just so I can cross them off the list. Try to keep your list small, though. If its too big, its too hard to handle. Thats what she said.

For more on this concept, check out Just One Thing by Dr. Rick Hanson.

Change is hard and new things can be scary. Most people would rather fail in familiar ways than fail in new ways. Try thinking of yourself as a child learning to do something new. Would you mercilessly berate a kid mispronouncing words as shes learning to read? If the answer is yes, maybe steer clear of volunteer work with literacy programs.

Creating new routines or systems requires repeating behaviors, so dont trash talk yourself at the first slip. Training yourself is no different than training kids or dogs or husbands. Positive reinforcement works way better than negative. Catch flies with honey. Be sweet, jerkface.

Celebrate the wins. When you eff up, try to stay neutral. Your choices are neither good nor bad. Notice when you start throwing shade in your head and course correct. Tell yourself to stop judging and start helping.Think about ways you can help your future-self succeed the next time youre faced with a similar situation. When it comes to the way most of us talk to and about ourselves, we could all benefit from stopping to askAITA (am I the asshole)?

For more on this topic, Id suggest Unf*ck Yourself: Get Out of Your Head and into Your Life by Gary John Bishop. The free snippet of the audiobook online was pretty good, so its now on my ever-growing reading list.

I know, I know. I keep giving advice regarding things I cant even finish.

Instead of insisting that things happen exactly as you plan them, allow for the variance. Expect the upset. Be prepared to redirect the route as you talk to yourself in that creepy GPS robot voice, Recalculatingrecalculatingin 50 ft, make a U-turn.

If you label activities or behaviors as things you should do, thats rigid thinking. Strive to be more flexible and turn those should into coulds. I could go to the gym. I could go on a hike. Or I could do some light stretching in the living room with my three cats and watch Firefly again. Theres goodness in degrees.Do your best to avoid all-or-nothing thinking and absolutes. The way we frame things internally is a critical component of sustained behavior change.

Dr. Michelle Segar is a behavioral sustainability scientist, and she recommends sorting your motivations into the two bucketsintrinsic or extrinsic.

Intrinsic or internal motivations are linked to internal rewards. Its when you do something because it is satisfying on its own and deeply attached to your values and desires. In contrast, extrinsic or external motivations are essentially external rewardsthings like approval, wealth, notoriety, good grades or staying out of prison.

Its important to remember that intrinsic motivations arent inherently good and extrinsic motivations arent inherently bad. You need to figure out what works for you. Whatever you land on, remember science shows that our brains are hardwired to respond to immediate rewards.

For example, if you tell yourself youre exercising because it will boost your mood TODAY and help you sleep better TONIGHT, you can reap those benefits immediately. If you focus on the fact that exercising will help you live longer or lose weight eventually, thats great and all, but those reasons arent as gratifying as quickly.

I dont have anything quippy to say here, because this is the serious part. This is where you do the work. This is where you sit quietly with yourself, with a pen, some paper and Google search for reference, and determine your core values (if you havent already). What do you really care about? Not to sound too much like Ferris Bueller here, but life moves pretty fast. I highly recommend figuring this out as soon as possible and then revisiting it regularly.

We all need to press pause once in a while and assess whether our thoughts, words, and actions are in alignment with whatever core values weve determined are our own. That last part is importantmaking sure your core values are your ownnot necessarily whats been handed down to you from your family of origin, or the media you consume, or the circle-jerk of idiots you compete with at work.

Thats all Ive got. Remember to be kindto yourselfand to everyone else who is struggling to be the best version of themselves in this world that moves so fast. May the Force be with you and may the odds be ever in your favor.

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Listen, it's okay to suck at New Year's resolutions - Kansas City Pitch

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Home » Lose Weight Fast » Listen, it’s okay to suck at New Year’s resolutions – Kansas City Pitch