Inner Game: New Year Resolutions Bad for Health

People use affirmation statements like, "I am a winner" to make themselves feel better and promote better behavior. One of the intriguing things about certain affirmation phrases is that they can make people feel worse. For example, "Everyday, in everyway, I am getting better" can lead to people developing unhealthy mental fixations and unrealistic pictures of success. The end result is they become more depressed and less likely to fulfill their own goals.

Watch your resolutions!

The steps to eliminate this problem are simple though:

1.) Set realistic, obtainable goals.
2.) Have a guide that is backward planned. Where do you want to be in one year? Tomorrow?
3.) Don't focus on the negatives. Many people who plan this focus on things they don't like about themselves. Focus on improving.
4.) Don't beat yourself up. Set aside specific times to do things to make them become routine. Set aside a certain time to work out, to learn an instrument, etc. to improve, but focus on the improvements, not the failures.
5.) Keep a journal. Start off with where you are at now and then look at where you are at in two months by lookinga the journal. If you're working out, for example, take off your shirt, weigh yourself, and record your lifts and aerobic times. You might be impressed at how far you can go in just three months.