New Years' Resolutions: Making Changes Stick

I just read a great blog post by Tanya Jolliffe over at SparkPeople.com (a healthy living web site--lots of great tools for improving your diet and exercise habits) about how to make New Years' Resolutions that stick. Her rule?

Adopt habits and routines you're willing to continue for the rest of your life.

It sounds simple, right? And yet, a lot of times we make New Years' resolutions that don't work in the long run: lose 10 lbs (via a restrictive diet plan), get organized (via a marathon cleaning spree), accomplish more (via an unrealistic plan to accomplish 12 hours of work during 8 hour days).

Jolliffe writes "By adopting habits you are willing to carry out for the rest of your life on December 31, you are focusing on making lifestyle changes. The small changes allow you to learn and incorporate new behaviors and habits to reach short term goals along the way."

Lifestyle changes: that's what I want. I want to continually tweak my life in ways that help me become a better, healthier, more compassionate person--one who continues to improve as a writer, of course, but that goes without saying :).

Cheryl