Why make a New Year's resolution when you can make a One
Decision?
Why make a New Year's resolution when you can make a One
Decision? If you want to lose weight, pay off your credit card,
or get organized, you have a bigger decision to make. By Judith
Wright Research shows that the average New Year's Resolution
fails within three weeks. That means that 21 days after the ball
drops, the champagne is gone, and the streamers have all been
swept away, your grand resolution to lose weight/pay off your
debt/quit smoking is going to turn into a big disappointment.
Why do we fail at our New Year's Resolutions year after year?
Sure, there are a lucky (and determined) few who manage to stick
to their goals, but most of us find ourselves wondering what
went wrong. Many people think they need to set smaller goals,
but what I'm about to tell you may contradict everything you've
heard before. Your New Year's Resolutions aren't big enough.
Your goals aren't big enough. What I've found in working with
people for over 20 years is not that their goals need to be
scaled back, but that they don't want enough. They haven't
thought about why they want what they want?why they want to lose
weight or quit smoking. They haven't identified a bigger purpose
and meaning within their goals, so they are running on sheer
will power and are, at best, only successful in a few areas.
More than just setting goals. It's a revolutionary concept: if
you identify what you really, truly want from your New Year's
Resolution, you'll find that reaching smaller goals is very
do-able, almost natural. Your resolution has to be more than
just setting goals for the next year. It has to be a decision
about what matters to you and what you really want from life. I
call it the One Decision. A One Decision is a very personal
choice about who you are and what you care about. The One
Decision gives you a reason to go through what it takes to not
only achieve your goals, but also to change your life. If Lance
can do it, so can you. Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de
France champion, didn't just set a goal to win the Tour de
France. He made a bigger commitment about living strong, and
that is what gave him the courage and strength to keep winning.
That's a One Decision. You may be thinking, " But I don't want
to win the Tour de France! I just want to fit into my jeans!"
The power of the One Decision is that once you make it, you will
not only achieve the goals in front of you, but also you will
expand your vision to encompass much bigger and more
far-reaching goals. Losing weight by loving yourself. Carrie had
tried every diet imaginable--no sugar, no fat, no salt, no
wheat, no "white things;" the blood type and body type diets,
high fiber diets, liquid diets, and special food diets. She's
been on cabbage broth diets, egg diets, celery diets, tuna
diets, cottage cheese diets, and even grapefruit diets. In the
past 40 years, Carrie has gained and lost enough pounds to equal
her total body weight (and probably yours too!). Needless to
say, simply resolving to lose weight never worked for her. Then
Carrie made her One Decision--she decided to "love herself
beyond measure as a unique gift of God's love." From making that
decision, she is beginning to treat her body very differently.
When she gets hungry, Carrie asks herself, "What would you feed
someone you really loved?" By default she started getting more
exercise, deciding that she's worth the extra attention it takes
to really take care of herself. Carrie has accepted that she
won't be thin overnight--but by making this larger commitment
she's already lost over 20 pounds that won't be coming back.
This New Year's, you have the opportunity to not only achieve
some goals, but also change your life for the better. Forever.
What will your One Decision be?
Judith Wright--best-selling author, educator, consultant, and
lifestyles expert--has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning
America, Fox & Friends and over 300 other radio and TV programs.
Her new book, The One Decision (Tarcher, 12/29/05), is endorsed
by Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard, Tom Peters, and many others.
Visit Judith Wright at www.judithwright.com.