Here’s a crap resolution… “I’m going to lose weight.” The reason it’s crap is not because it’s not a spectacular thing to pursue but because the resolution in itself doesn’t speak to a specific controllable action. It is a general statement of purpose and while it may seem to signal a set of inherent tasks it doesn’t actually speak specifically to doing anything. And because it doesn’t directly speak to completing some task it then ties up valuable emotional energy in constantly having to evaluate its importance and having to perpetually define what relevant activity should come along with it.

Our mind is most effective when it is freed to simply execute actionable resolutions rather than to have to interpret the emotional aspects that come along with a vague one. If you want to lose weight, then the question you should ask yourself is, “What do I have to do to lose weight?”

Any of the responses to that question are probably more empowering resolutions. If you’re struggling with the question, then you can follow my friend Gary Michels’ 4-Point Methodology:

-      What do I need to do more of?

-      What do I need to do less of?

-      What do I need to stop doing?

-      What do I need to start doing?

Asking yourself those four questions will yield some great resolutions. But I suggest that you want to limit yourself to 1-3 resolutions relating to losing weight because if your brain has to spend too much time processing a long list of items it is likely to just abandon the system altogether.

Even in answering all of these four questions you will discover that there is a potential list of probably 20-30 things that all relate to “losing weight” and when that is your generic resolution then your mind has to cycle through all of those possible options at any moment you face a decision.

That’s a big problem. Because since the resolution isn’t clearly actionable then every day you wake up, your mind first has to decide “is my losing weight resolution even a valid one?” And then if so, “what course of action should I take today?” Then it attempts to process 30 things all at once and it either overloads itself or it makes a decision but it took a lot out of you. And because your brain goes through this process each day or each time a decision has to be made then what eventually starts to happen is your brain says, “I don’t want to go through all of the work of processing this decision so the heck with it I’m just going to do what feels good.”

Whereas if you layout a specific resolution such as “I’m going to drink more water” or “I’m going to go to the gym 3x a week” or “I’m going to stop eating fast food” or “I’m going to stop drinking carbonated beverages” or “I’m going to eat less dessert” then when those decision points enter into your life’s path (i.e. someone offers to run to Starbucks for you, you’re on the way home deciding whether or not to hit the gym, your friends invite you to go to Taco Bell, someone offers you a coke or a piece of cheesecake) your brain simply executes whether or not the decision point in front of you is congruent with your clearly intentioned resolution and it simply returns an affirmative or negative response that you are much more likely to execute.

So this year, make actionable resolutions so as to eliminate the longer more emotional decision making process that comes along with a vague resolution that might cause you to lose.

That said, please share with me friends…what are your resolutions for today and the rest of the year? My Fitness goal is to drink more water.

See you in the stairwell,

Rory Vaden
Take the Stairs - Success means doing things you don’t want to do