Making Successful Resolutions

As we approach the New Year, we hear and see everywhere about making New Year’s Resolutions. We start the New Year saying we resolve to do this or do that or stop doing something. Moreover, we do pretty well on our resolutions until about February, and then they begin to wane and by March, we are back to what we have grown accustomed to, explains Health Coach Ellen Hotz.  “Only about 45% of the population actually makes New Year’s resolutions and interestingly 38% absolutely never make New Year’s resolutions, but for those that do only about 8% are successful.” Hotz says New Year’s resolutions have become cliché.  “As a health coach, I am not crazy about the word resolution because I think it has almost become a cliché, it has become something people do for New Year’s and they talk about it, then they halfway do it but then they don’t really do it and then they set themselves up for failure that way.  Yet, most people’s resolutions are things that they really want to do or really probably should do.  That is the definition of resolutions, people want to change things that are bad or start doing things that are good.” Making improvements to health are the most common resolutions, concludes Hotz.  “Health is actually the number one resolution and I look at all kinds of sources online, in polls, surveys and such.  Either getting fit, loosing weight, or improving your health is number one in just about every poll that I saw.”  To be successful with your resolutions; Hotz recommends writing them down, having a support system, setting small attainable goals and tracking your progress.