Cookies and Chocolate and Skittles oh my!

Can you tell I’m food driven? Somehow I seem to find a way to bring up food, that is really but not really what I want to focus on today. What I want to discuss is choices. Why choices? Well, we are a few weeks into 2021 and now the rubber is meeting the road with all those New Year’s resolutions we made a few weeks back.

I’ve heard it takes 21 days to make a habit. I’m not so sure that’s really true because I’ve made it way past the day 21 mark before only to “break that habit” when something else enters my life and needs attention.

Like many of you I make goals each year and I work to accomplish them, in general, goal setting comes naturally to me. I like to know what the target is and then plan to get there in a systematic way. There are a chunk of people, though, that don’t set New Year’s resolutions. Some people pick a different date and some people just plain don’t set goals.

Regardless, we are mostly through January and those who have a goal of some sort are in a very critical spot. For most people their newly set goals never see February. I have a few ideas of why this is and hopefully provide some suggestions for choices you can make to make sure you succeed.

First let’s analyze goal setting. (Wait for it, I’m heading back to food.) Let’s say my goal is to “not eat any candy”. Really? Ever? I’m not a big candy eater but even I couldn’t do this. So right from the beginning you have set yourself up to fail. Any time you set an all or nothing goal it usually fails.

So where do choices come into this discussion. Let’s go back to not eating candy. I would suggest that you make that your target or long term goal, not your only goal. It will become your goal when the time is right. Why? Because if you eat 10 packs of skittles a day, to go to 0 immediately would send you into withdrawal. Most people will make it for the first few days and then will cave to the cravings of wanting to eat skittles. Then the guilt sets in because you broke your resolution and you just quit. Now this advice is for goal setting and not for addressing an addiction, if you have an addiction you need to see a professional.

So the target (assuming I start this as a New Year’s resolution) might be: Beginning in June, I will only eat 1 pack of skittles a week. Always give yourself a tiny amount of wiggle room (the 1 pack a week) so then the 1st goal might be to eat 8 packets a day. Set this goal immediately, this is your focus. This is what you are working to master. Keep the 1 pack a week in the back of your head so you remember where you are headed but keep laser focused on the current goal- 8 packs of skittles a day. Set a time to master this, for example: for the next two weeks I will only eat 8 packs of skittles a day. This should give you time to adapt to the change without going into full withdrawal. Then set your next goal: For the next two weeks I will only eat 6 packs of skittles a day. See where I’m headed with this? If you keep stepping yourself to your goal, then by the time you reach that 1 pack a week you are thinking how on Earth could I have eaten 10 of these a day? Once you reach your 1 pack a week maybe you create a new goal. Your goal could be to extend it to 1 pack every 2 weeks. Still following?

By taking steps that are doable you are more likely to stick with it and will find the accomplishment you were hoping to create. You can use this process at any time of the year too, don’t wait until New Year’s to make resolutions. Some people start this process with the start of summer break or at the beginning of a school year. Whatever works for you is then your best time to start! Besides most of us make resolutions to lose weight and exercise and you all know how busy health clubs are in January! Start that goal in March and you’ll save yourself a ton of time because you won’t be waiting for gym equipment.

I know you can do whatever you set your mind to. I will be your cheerleader, you got this!