"In one year and out the next week"
Last year about this time, I wrote the following on New Year’s Resolutions:
Why Bother?
This is the time of year when people start telling themselves this is the year that they are going to get in shape, eat right and stop stealing office supplies. And most will have failed the first two goals by the end of the Sugarbowl Halftime Report, and #3 by 4:00 on the first Monday after the holiday. So in other words, don’t bother.
The problem with lofty goals is that they are unattainable. Then when you slip, you get depressed and completely give up. Or sometimes people will set these ridiculous goals knowing they can’t do it, giving themselves an “out” of doing what’s right.
You can’t go from doing 12 ounce curls on the couch to training for a marathon on New Years Day. You can’t go from 3000 calories of processed meats and sugars to an 1800 calorie whole food diet (and not want to commit homicide) in just a week. And you’re never going to start buying your own stamps when the Post Office keeps raising their rates.
It was either Shakespeare, Lau Tzu or the cast of Glee that said: ‘a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.’ If you want to change, you’re going to have to make reasonable, attainable, measurable goals. Not just make random cheap champagne fueled wishes on the back of a cocktail napkin.
I propose the 1% solution. It was either me or NY Times bestselling author Tom Connellan who coined the phrase. Instead of setting yourself up for failure with crazy hair-brained ideas; just be a little bit better every day.
Instead of sandwiches, eat salads; water not soda; red wine not beer (1 not 12); stairs not elevator; exercise 30 min not 20; and add or take away a little more over time until you’ve reached your goal. If it takes you 11 months instead of quitting in 11 days, that’s much more than 1% better.
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