Use strategy to hit your 2012 resolutions

They include setting the right goals. Oftentimes people set negative goals such as losing weight or inches rather than positive goals such as getting healthier or in better shape. Goals need to feel positive in order to keep you motivated. Selecting several complimentary goals is also a good technique. For instance, you could set a goal to eat five fruits a day and another goal to walk 10,000 steps per day. Combined they will contribute to a healthier you and if you achieve only one thing on any given day, you will still be making progress.

Useful goals should be specific, attainable or doable and forgiving. Exercising more is a great goal, but it's not specific. Walking five miles daily is specific and measurable, but is it doable if you're just starting out? "Walking 30 minutes each day is more attainable, but what happens if you're held up at work one day and there's a thunderstorm during your walking time another day?  Walking 30 minutes on five days per week is specific, doable, and forgiving. In short, it is a great goal.

Forming a new habit generally takes 30 days to establish, but within those 30 days, you can use a behavior technique called shaping. Shaping is just what it sounds like – you are shaping the behavior you eventually want rather than diving in full force. The Institute on Health explains, “You select a series of short-term goals that get closer and closer to the ultimate goal. (For example, you institute an initial reduction of fat intake from 40 percent of calories to 35 percent of calories and later to 30 percent.) Shaping is based on the concept that nothing succeeds like success, and it uses two important behavioral principles: consecutive goals that move you ahead in small steps are the best way to reach a distant point; and consecutive rewards keep the overall effort invigorated.

Changing behavior is a process. Use goal setting and shaping plus these simple techniques, and you will make your resolution a reality.

• Get a friend that has a similar goal to go along with you and help keep you motivated.
• Reward yourself. Find little rewards that are positive and celebrate those successes.
• Keep a journal or a blog to make your goals concrete your successes easy to track.
• Do your research and know the benefits of what you are trying to achieve.

Best of luck, and I hope you have a healthy New Year.


Jeanine Achin is a district executive director for the YMCA of Greater Providence. Contact her at (508) 336-7103 or jachin@gpymca.org.