“When you make a mistake, don’t look back at it long. Take the reason of the thing into your mind and then look forward. Mistakes are lessons of wisdom. The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.” - Hugh White (1773-1840)
It’s February already (how did that happen?!) and the hopes of keeping New Year’s resolution may be a distant memory now. How did you go? Have you stuck to the diet? Exercised more? Quit smoking? While studies have shown that it is easier to make a change at the start of the year, they have also shown that making any change is hard.
Why is it so hard to change? Most of the time, we are doing exactly what we are doing for a reason. It may not be a good reason, or a healthy reason, but there may be a reason that doing this thing works for us, at least at this time in our lives. Recognising that we want to change can be the first step in making a change, but it is not enough.
If you haven’t achieved your goals at this point, don’t worry, there is still time. Remember; where there is life, there is hope. To help, here are some tips for making a lifestyle change:
- Ask yourself if you really want to change. Do you want to change because someone else thinks you should? Do you think it’s not such a big deal? If so, you may not be ready to change. Seek more information, rather than make a change at this time.
- Nevermind the Biggest Loser, not only is it almost impossible to lose 15 kilos in 2 weeks, it’s not healthy. It certainly is hard to stick to a punishing diet and it is likely to make you gain more weight in the long run. Instead, set a weight loss goal of losing 1 kilo or less per week. This is the same for any other habits, make it something you can actually stick to and you’re much more likely to be successful.
- Use your resources. Remember, rockets use most of their fuel in the first few minutes of flight because they have to break through the pull of gravity. Habits are the same; we need to break through the pull of the old way to get to a new way of life. So if you want to be successful in making a change, use all your energy and enlist all the help you can from friends and family.
- Expect to be working on it for at least 2 months. The rule of thumb is that it takes 3 weeks to break the grip of an old habit, 3 weeks to learn the new habit and 3 weeks to make it second-nature. It’s not something you can do in a week or two.
If you’ve done all this and still haven’t made the changes you’d like, you might like to get some professional help. Psychologists are trained to help people change. Visit www.clearwatercentre.com.au for more information on changing habits or on how a psychologist could help.
