Resolutions:
Every year thousands, if not millions, of people across the world (or is this just a US thing?) make New Year's Resolutions. They typically go along the lines of:
I'm going to lose weight; I'm going to quit smoking; I'm not going to fight with my spouse so much; I'm not going to watch as much TV; etc.
Do you notice a fundamental flaw in the wording here? They focus on the negative and not the positive. And that's what we so-often do throughout so many aspects of our lives.
Ugh, if I don't get up and exercise I'm going to be fat. If I don't get on that dating website I'm going to remain single. If I don't save money I'm going to keep being poor.
What if we reworded it to focus on the positive:
This year, I'm going to believe that I deserve to live a healthy life by exercising more. This year, I'm going to save money and improve my health by no longer smoking. This year, my spouse and I are going to have a wonderful relationship founded on communication. This year, I'm going to try out that hobby that's been in the back of my mind instead of watching 3 hours of tv each night.
If I do workout more, I'm going to be healthier, happier and better. If I join that website, I may find my partner. When I save money, I'm going to be able to pay ca$h for that dream vacation.
BOOYA! I mean, come on, don't you get excited when you put things in a positive perspective?
Frankly, I do not believe that corrective action works. Negative consequences of negative behaviors don't work either in my opinion or none of us would be eating fried foods and oreos at midnight (or is that just me?) if negative consequences worked, obesity would not be on the rise, would it? so instead, let's get back to a positive reinforcement of a positive behavior. I think I learned something about that a bazillion years ago in some psych 101 class I took at the local community college.
Now, if you don't mind I have to get to my ab crunches, because when I do ab crunches and work on my core, I'm going to be able to BEAT that Kentucky Derby FULL Marathon coming up in April. Yes Ma'am I will! Or at least that's my 26.2 cents worth and hey, if you're working on paying your debt off, every 26.2 cents counts. Can I get an amen?
