New Year's Resolutions

December 29, 2010

Interview with Dr. Donald Wetmore, author of the book KISS Guide to Organizing Your Life (Keep It Simple Series)

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Mike Carruthers:
Why are New Year's resolutions so hard to stick with?

Dr. Donald Wetmore:
People will have a goal to lose weight, stop smoking, give up caffeine, and stop, give up, those kinds of things are all negatives.

Dr. Don Wetmore, president of the Connecticut-based Productivity Institute and author of the book KISS Guide to Organizing Your Life (Keep It Simple Series)

So instead of the negative, turn it around. Don't say that you're going to lose weight. You say to yourself, "I see myself having a size 34 waist." Never tell yourself you're going to quit smoking. None of us like to quit. Instead, see yourself with nice, fresh, pink lungs. In having a positive goal, we move more intuitively and comfortably towards a positive goal than a negative goal.

And for a New Year's resolution to stick, Don says you really have to be committed to making the change.

Often times, people are making New Year's resolutions to please other people. "This'll be the year that I quit smoking to please my wife," or to lose weight or get involved in an exercise program. I mean, those are noble kinds of things, but until you have an internal reason to do it, chances are you're not going to stick to it.

A lot of people say, "I'd like to quit smoking or lose weight, but I don't have the confidence."

The problem is, the confidence comes from the doing. We get confidence by doing. The little child on the bicycle takes the training wheels off, pedals a little bit, and falls down. He gets up again, does it again, goes a little bit further. He's building the confidence. I think the people who fail are the people who never attempt, who never try, who never made the resolution in the first place.