MOST RECENT ENTRY: New Take on New Year's Resolutions!

Have you made your New Year's Resolutions? How many are from last year? According to Tom Connellan, author of  "The 1 Percent Solution: How to Make Your Next 30 Days the Best Ever" just one week into January, 25 percent of New Year's resolutions are nothing more than a memory. The prospects for keeping a resolution throughout the year are even more bleak, Connellan says and he estimates that by the time we ring in 2013, 88 percent of New Year's resolutions will have been broken.

There are many reasons why resolutions are not kept, but according to Connellan, three major reasons stand out above the others.

• We rely on motivation only. - People believe they will find one secret trick to motivating themselves when motivation actually comes from small successes, according to Connellan.

• We only think big. - People only think in large terms that are often unrealistic – like losing lots of weight or making a major life change, he said.

• We don't realize that even positive change is uncomfortable. – Change, even good change, is a break from the norm, Connellan said.

In an article in WebMD by Neil Osterweil titled, “In One Year, Out the Other”, he offers a different take on the typical New Year’s Resolution. Rather than make such resolutions we often fail to keep, Osterweil suggests we take a step back and resolve to just do our best. He quotes from Elizabeth Zelvin, LCSW, an online therapist who helps people with eating disorders and substance abuse problems, “The principles of 12-step programs are practical and effective guides to living, especially with their emphasis on setting attainable goals. ‘One day at a time’ is the antithesis of making New Year's resolutions. "It's not saying, 'I'm going to do this and keep it up all year,' it's saying, what can I do today?"

In a related book, Virtue and Psychology – Pursuing Excellence in Ordinary Practices, Blaine Flowers, PhD writes an extensive section on the centrality of practical wisdom. Dr. Flowers gives numerous examples to show how practical wisdom guides all of our activities, personal and professional by making it possible to see what is most important and choose actions that address the central aspects of our circumstances in ways that help us to reach our cherished goals and even some New Year’s Resolutions.

See below the continuing education course based on Flowers book here at www.GenesisCE.org. The course helps Mental Health Professionals fulfill CE credits and is available for Psychologists, LCSW, LPC, LMFT, LMHC, LSSP and more: approved by APA, ASWB, NBCC, NAADAC and most states for School Psychology.

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