New Years Resolutions

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Recommended: Factors influencing self motivation

You know how I sometimes go into something completely unrelated to the topic before actually getting into the topic?

I'm going to do that again.

The power in my house went out last night and I completely blew off my first appointment (I live by my alarm clocks...that's right clocks-plural) and as I rushed into the bathroom to take a shower (so as not to miss my second appointment) I stepped in cat poop. Apparently I closed off access to the litter before going to bed last night. If you know anything about cat poop then you are aware that it is probably the most horrible smell ever. At least he pooped in the bathroom.

Okay to resolutions. I'm a fan of resolutions and I know most of them are not kept with but at the very least they can act as reminders of what we would like to change.

There are many reasons why resolutions or the commitments that we make to ourselves to change at any point during the year sometimes fall through; today we're going to look at one big barrier - motivation. Motivation is a finicky thing - it comes and it goes; the thing that helps it one day can end up hurting it the next. There are a few things you may want to keep in mind when making a commitment to change and during the follow through.

Reasonable Accountability

Some folks have a hard time taking responsibility for their actions and life can provide us with ample opportunities to bail out of our commitments. Depression, anxiety, change in routine, bad parents, trauma, finances....all of these things can be reasons why the change is harder but they do not have to act as excuses to give up. We can acknowledge that these hurdles make the journey harder but hurdles are not impenetrable and unlike the Olympics there really aren't any hard and fast r...

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..., walking around all day telling yourself what a crappy employee you are isn't going to help. You may not have been employee of the month 30 times in a row like your co-worker Brad (it's always some guy named Brad) but that doesn't mean you were bad at your job or everything you did was miserable. You are also more than your job, you may be a great parent, wife, volunteer or masked crusader motivated my their complicated past who uses the cover of darkness and mysterious identity to connect lost hermit crabs with their homes. Whatever. There is good to you...you're just making good better.

So obviously my New Years resolution is to lose weight; I encourage you to figure out what change you want to make and commit to it - we'll screw it up together along the way but we may get there and we'll be the better for trying.

Happy New Years and thanks for checking in!

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