The Change Catalyst

It’s now 12 days into the new year. Are you still keeping your New Year’s resolutions? January is a month when gym memberships soar, new diets start and alcohol is abstained from after the blow-out holiday season. But how sustainable is this way of making life changes?

Perhaps not very. “New Year’s resolutions are a form of cultural procrastination,” says Dr. Timothy Pychyl, an associate professor of psychology at Carleton University who specializes in goal-setting and the study of procrastination. ”Every culture shares the circle of rebirth and concept of a possible self where you have an intention, but start in January. If you really want to do something, you can start anytime.” Dr. Pychyl’s term “possible self” can be thought of as the aspirations for yourself, your family and your life. Just what do you want to be, to do and to have.

If you are struggling to keep your new plans on track, read on.  We have four ways to help you keep your self improvement going well into 2009:

1. Are you ready for change?

Are you really ready for the change you want to make?  Change is a process not an event. Ask people who have tried to give up smoking several times before succeeding, it is easy to slip back into a habit that has been built up over many years. Even people who seem to have just quit or just started a new healthy habit have likely gone through a cycle of smaller changes before, even attitude changes.  I became a vegetarian in 2006 but had stopped eating seafood in 2004 after watching The Blue Planet BBC documentary which showed the damage deep sea fishing was doing to the ocean floor.  My change took a number of years and smaller shifts in attitude before it became a habit.  What smaller change or shift can you make towards your life change?   Find someone who is already living the change you want to make and ask them questions. I found a few vegetarian friends who reassured me that you could live healthily and energetically without meat. They were competing in endurance races and lived very active lives.

2. Are you targets realistic?

Once you are ready for the change, set yourself a target. Can you sustain it?  People who start exercise programs often start off very frequently - going daily or several times a week - only to get injured or taper the training off until old habits return.  While I like to have a huge “unrealistic” target to get me excited and motivated about a new sport, I still need to start with smaller steps. When I started thinking about competing in triathlons I wanted to race in the Ironman which is probably one of the toughest endurance races around. When I started talking to triathletes and learning about the sport from podcasts, I realised that you need at least three years solid training to build up to that race, which for an amateur would take around 12 - 16 hours to complete.  Realising this I shifted my attention to the shorter Olympic distance races which I finish in around 3 hours and are enjoyable.  I still have the intention to finish (at least one) Ironman race but I keep myself going with smaller targets.

3. Don’t make excuses for yourself

Are you good at finding “reasons” why you should not follow through on your intentions. Why you don’t need to get up (in the cold) and go for that jog, or why it’s perfectly fine to eat that lovely cheesecake. Dr. Pychyl says excuses reinforce the negative behaviour you desire to change. “We say, ‘No more cake,’ but we give in to feel good, then the “what the hell effect” takes hold, and you eat the whole cake.”  I have to admit I am a master of making these type of excuses - rationalising my actions so I still feel as though I am on track. At some point, we have to stop lying to ourselves!  I make a game to help. For example, when I realised over the summer as I was writing my book The One Minute Presenter, I was hammering the coffee and candy and was putting on some weight. Rather than try to give up them up, I turned it into a game.  I limited myself to a coffee in the morning and cut back the cake and candy to the weekend. I made a simple scoreboard so I could track my progress and after about a month my weight was back to normal. It was really fun to go to Jamaica Blue on a Saturday after five days without, I enjoyed it so much more! So stop making excuses for yourself, make the change a game.

4. Substitute rather than “give up”

Many New Year resolutions tend to be “give up” ones. Give up smoking, eating, drinking.  Instead of just quitting something, switch a positive action for it. So instead of not eating junk food, combine that with ‘ a visit to the gym/ swimming pool / park twice a week’.  Be sure to replace a negative addiction with a positive one - not another negative one. So if you quit smoking, don’t start eating five bars of chocolate a day.  Set yourself targets (daily / weekly / monthly) and measure them. Tick off the days on a piece of paper or chart. Make sure you keep the chart visible, paste it up in your bathroom or kitchen.

Most New Year’s Resolutions are history by February. I don’t want that to happen to you.  Contact me if you need any support with making your life changes a reality.

Read more about Dr. Pychyl here. You can also see similar articles on written goals here, getting started by making yourself a promise here, and some quick tips on getting focused here.  Good luck with our 2009 plans and goals!