What happened to your new year resolution?

In an earlier post, I had proposed to write more about why we fail to follow up on our New year resolutions.

  There are three kinds of people when it comes to resolutions: The first kind who still believe in resolutions, the second kind who stopped believing in resolutions because it didn't work out for them, and the third lucky group who probably wouldn't read this blog - those disciplined kind with enough self-control to achieve their resolutions. I’m definitely not in the third group.

 Now what has self-control got to do with resolutions?

  When resolutions are made, they are often in different realms, like doing more exercise and following a new diet plan. You might think there is a connection between exercise and a diet plan. Yes there is, but a Big No when it comes to resolutions. Often two or more resolutions are packaged as if it is a combo meal at McDonalds.

  You say, ‘A veg burger please’

  The vendor says, ‘ Do you want Pepsi?’

  You reply, ‘Ya, a Pepsi too.’

  ‘Sir, shall I make it into a combo? ’

  Without thinking much, you say, ‘Okay, Combo then.’

There you go, you went there to take a Burger, and finally ended up raking a lot more calories.  That’s how resolutions are made, one sticking on to the other. You are better served if you had struck to just the Veg Burger, so is with resolution, it is better to stick with just one resolution at a time.

What happens when you have more than one objective?

  Let’s say you start your day with some exercise early in the morning. As long as exercise is not a habit, you are exercising considerable amount of self-control to get up early in the morning and go for that jog. It is a different matter when it becomes second nature.

  Let’s say you have 100 self –control points in your kitty, and as you exercise, it comes down to 50 in one hour. Then you've to follow the diet, the diet is new for you, and there are some bland items on the menu. There you need some self–control again to stick to the tough new regimen. But you are not fresh, and your self-control score is on the wane. The waning self-control is a big bane, and that tempts you to drop your diet plan altogether. And that creates a ripple effect, your confidence on the other resolutions are affected, and eventually affect the attempts of developing the exercise routine. In the end, all the resolutions come down flat on your face, and you wait till the end of December to make your next plan.

So what’s the way to tackle this?

  The best way to handle the problem of waning self-control is to take just one resolution at a time. By having just one resolution or one objective at a time, you are allowing optimal consumption of self-control. When I say one objective, I mean one clear objective across different facets of your life, personal and professional.

  Even a tough deadline at office is going to impact the process of building a new habit, because even that takes up a lot of energy – in turn self-control and that means a lower self-control score. This is because, we have only a certain amount of self-control (Say 100) and the self-control score changes based on the activity you perform. (When does your self-control score reset to the highest value? That’s for another day.)

  Agreed we cannot control every external factor, especially when it is a professional commitment. Knowing that the external factors interrupt our good effort, it is only prudent to decide the execution time of your resolution; the new resolution need not be a New year resolution.

  For a successful resolution, we need to choose the most comfortable time, and assign the highest priority to it, no matter what. Awareness on how mundane chores impact your important habit-building activities will go a long way in overcoming the obstacles on the way.

 Go try this at home! Come back with success your story, Good luck.