It’s now a third of the way through the year and I would surmise that the majority of you have dropped out of your New Year’s Resolutions. That is quite common. British psychologist Richard Wiseman conducted a study in 2007 where he followed 3,000 participants regarding their resolutions. It turned out that only about 12% had actually fulfilled their new year’s resolutions. That left 88% who simply stopped or never started. This is despite the fact that 52% were confident that they would succeed.
The reality is that the human brain wasn’t designed to take on too many things at one time. Most people will set a multitude of resolutions and eventually will fail at all of them. That is the reason goals are much better than resolutions. Goals enable a person to break down into steps of what needs to be done for that particular goal. And there’s another key, one goal at a time. Do the goal, finish it and then move onto the next one.
At the start of the year people may say that they will simply use their will power. That has never shown to work for most people (Lehrer, 2009). The part of the brain responsible for will power is the prefrontal cortex. The human brain has not evolved to the point where this will override the limbic system, especially under stress. Goal-setting, on the other hand, brings in the limbic system. The part concerned with that is the reticular activating system (which helps us to focus on what we want).
Think of it this way, will power is part of our conscious thoughts. Yet, our subconscious mind is where 88% of control takes place. Keep your goals emotional and visual as much as possible. This is where the subconscious takes over and activate the reticular activating system part of your brain.
Keep it simple too. Breaking down your goals into steps allows for more of your subconscious mind to do its thing. Eventually good habits will spring forth as you go for each goal. Once you achieve one, the next one will be even easier. Your brain has a roadmap of habits that are goal-oriented.
Think about changing your resolutions into goals. SMART Goals work wonders in this process. In fact, don’t wait until the start of the year to set a goal. Do it now! Finish it and then get onto the next one. Have fun too!
Cheers,
Bob
America’s #1 Mind-Body Transformation Expert and author of Mind Your Own Fitness
References:
Lehrer, J. (2009), Blame It on the Brain; Wall Street Journal, December 26, 2009 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703478704574612052322122442.html
Wiseman, R.; New Year’s Resolutions Experiment; http://www.quirkology.com/UK/Experiment_resolution.shtml
