Recent research suggests you are ten times more likelihood of succeeding with New Year’s resolutions if you explicitly commit to them (such as by writing) vs. just thinking about them – it’s the difference between intention and commitment.
How incredible is it that 46% of those explicitly making resolutions are maintaining them after 6 months vs. 4% of those who don’t? That seems like pretty good odds to me – you have nearly a one in two chance of long term success with a resolution if you write it down!
If you want to increase your chances of success further, make resolutions some or all of these:
- Specific (how many, where, what, by when)
- Realistic (lose 10 or 20 pounds not 100 pounds in weight),
- Public (fear of embarrassment if fail), Shared (who’d let a friend down – share a goal to run weekly or train for a specific race)
- Competitive (challenge a friend to beat you in achieving the resolution)
So to increase my own chances of success, related to this blog, in 2013, I will:
- Enter and train specifically for 4 marathons or ultras, at least one international, in locations on my list of places to travel to.
- Post on training, racing, eating, travelling, and hopefully useful “life hacks” like this once a week.
- Have folks over for a dinner I will cook using at least one new recipe once a month.
So far, (if I can count New Year’s Eve!) I’m off to a good start.
- Entered the Napa Valley marathon for 3/1, the Gorges Waterfalls 50k on 3/31 on the Columbia River, and the Swissalpine K78 in Davos, Switzerland. I’m hoping to get into the UROC 100k on 9/28 from Breckenridge to Vail. That’ll take me to Colorado destinations like Vail, and Oregon destinations like Bend and Ashford (I’m planning an awesome running and craft brewery road trip around Oregon after the 50k) and a chance to visit Switzerland and see the alpine stages of the Tour de France.
- Resurrected this blog with this post and a list of topics.
- Cooked for 4 last night from a bevy of new cookbooks that I received for Christmas 🙂 Zuni Cafe’s cookbook Roast Chicken with Bread Salad along with Roasted Root Vegetables and a Squash, Farro and Black Rice salad from Thomas Keller’s Ad Hoc at Home.
Ok. I’m committed. What are you committing to?
Here’s to succeeding at our resolutions in 2013 🙂
rich work life 