With the New Year approaching, many people will be making promises to themselves in the form of New Year Resolutions. If the resolution was not something you had difficulty with and knew you could get through it you would probably save it for Lent (tongue-in-cheek). So in the spirit of helping you stick to your resolution, here are four ways to go from resolution to reality. These strategies are from Timothy Ferriss’ new book The 4-Hour Body: An Uncommon Guide to Rapid Fat-Loss, Incredible Sex, and Becoming Superhuman
1. Make it conscious
2. Make it a game
3. Make it competitive
4. Make it small and temporary
1. Make it conscious
If your goal is a physical change, this may mean documenting yourself with photos as you progress towards a health weight (either up or down). If financial, it may be gathering up all of your credit card balances and putting them into an excel sheet or using a student loan refinancing calculator. If cutting down on your alcohol intake, write down how much you usually drink per day, a night on the town, ect. Whatever your resolution is, make the issue that led to your resolution concrete in your mind.
Ferriss doesn’t write this but I also think it is important to put a plan or strategy together while making it conscious. “I will exercise vigoursly for 20 mintues, three times a week.” “I will pay $300 on my highest interest rate credit card every paycheck.” “I will drink one drink per hour in social situations.” Give yourself concrete actions as part of this process.
2. Make it a game
“Measurement = motivation” Based on research at Nike+, Ferriss suggests you measure and document results five times as a goal. The research seems to suggest after documenting your behavior five times you will continue to document it. Write down the balance of your credit cards each day day, week, or month for five time periods. Then document the balance of the card and watch it fall to zero on a graph in excel.
If you are going for a physical change, the common measurement is to document your weight. Ferriss writes about this problem in his book and I have seen it with my friends. If you are documenting only your weight, you may be frustrated because as you are losing fat and are gaining muscle, which weighs more. So if you must document your weight, make sure to document your strength or resting heart rate or some other measure. Weight by itself does not indicate health.
3. Make it competitive
Ferriss points out that research illustrates people are motivated by fear of losing and not the promise of reward (this could explain why many people only do the minimum required to keep their jobs, but I have no research for this and I digress). Therefore, set up a system with friends or family that will make your resolution competitive. My cross-fit gym posts the times or repetitions of a workout for all the participants on a white board. The motivation to have a competitive number is one factor in my workout intensity. The other is the hard work of those around me. And another is to measure progress in my repetitions or increase in weight or decrease in assistance.
I’ll give you a potential business idea along these lines. Set up a website where people enter their total credit card debt. Using percentages instead of raw numbers, create a public competition where people can compete to lower their percentage of debt against others. This has problems because of economic means and so forth, but life isn’t fair and some people have more resources than others. The public competition and community sharing the “game” to get to zero could be a fun competitive way for people to pay down their debt. The website could provide debt reduction strategies, sell useful books, have classes, connect people with a financial planner, consolidate loans, etc. Hmmm…maybe since I publicly stated this it will motivate me to do it first.
4. Make it small and temporary
This method, which I have read about before and used successfully, sets you up to succeed. Say you are struggling with debt. Saying, “I am going to join this multi-level marketing sales scheme in the new year and pay off all my debt in one month” will set you up for failure because life does not work this way. Let’s assume you have planned to put $300 toward your debt every month. Don’t set yourself up for failure by making the first $300 payment in the first month. Make a $100 payment instead of a minimum payment. Measure the impact. See the results. You should become addicted after awhile (maybe addicted is a bad word given its negative connotation…let’s say motivated) to paying by measuring the results, seeing the impact of your actions, and paying down your debt. Once you see the impact and make adjustments to your lifestyle, you might start doing more than $300. But start small so you can succeed in little, achievable steps.
I would love for you to make Talking About Men’s Health your public forum for your resolution. If you want to post in the comments or send me an email, I will blog your progress (first name only) as well as others.
Most of you should have a little time off work to think on this. A lot of you will be getting together with friends and family that you can publicly state your intention and find a partner in the resolution. Make a resolution, make it public, find someone to hold you accountable in a fun, competitive way and start with baby steps.
Good luck. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
