About this time of year, the majority of people who made New Year’s Resolutions have given up on them.  Are you one of these people?  More often than not, resolutions fail because they are too extreme, and they encourage an “all-or-nothing” mentality.

Can you relate? 

You either exercise everyday, or else you’ve failed. 

You give up sugar completely, or, yup, you guessed it, you’ve failed. 

You stop drinking coffee completely, and no more caffeine in any form, for that matter.  So, no more chocolate.  Oh, you weren’t able to do that, either?  Failure!

I want to add some levity to this discussion, because there’s a chance you’re beating yourself up about falling off the wagon once again.  And, in all seriousness, that doesn’t get you anywhere.

At least, it never got me anywhere.  And it never gets my clients anywhere, either.

When you’re making any kind of change related to your health, it’s a good idea to realize that it is a process.  A gradual one, for most people.  There’s a lot of gray area.  And “all-or-nothing” thinking is undoubtedly a set-up for failure.

Is increasing how often you exercise a good goal to work toward?  Most definitely.  If in 2010 you exercised a few times a month, then making a plan for once or twice a week is a realistic goal to set and achieve.  Eventually, you can increase that, if you choose. 

Has most of your diet been made up of sugar and processed foods?  Okay, let’s improve on that situation by incorporating more whole foods and cutting back on the sugar. 

Taking a gradual approach, focusing on small changes, sets you up for success.  And small successes build on each other.  Before you  know it, you will be feeling and looking the way that you want to, without having to beat yourself up along the way.

Give it a try.  Aim for small changes, practice them over time, and celebrate all of the victories along the way.

What resolutions would you still like to achieve for 2011, but now you’re realizing that a different approach may be in order?  Leave a comment to let me know.

However, I am feeling drawn to making some New Year commitments to myself.  And focusing on putting my energy into honoring them.  Just as I honor those to everyone else.

Commitment energy can be a really amazing thing.  There’s emotion tied to it.  Often times even passion.  When we have commitment energy around something, we are far more likely to stick with it when the going gets tough.

And the going always gets tough, doesn’t it?  If something we wanted were easy to achieve, I would imagine we would already be experiencing it, right?

Are there commitments that you’ve made to yourself this past year, that you have continued to break?  Are any of those still a top priority for you as you move into 2011?

Get really honest with yourself.  What is really important to YOU?  Not to your husband.  Or your neighbors.  Or your friends.  But to YOU.

That’s where it all starts. 

Resolutions so often fail because, deep down, there’s no commitment energy around them.  Often they come in the form of a “should.” 

As the last month of the year begins, I know that I’ll be taking some time to really get quiet.  To really listen.  To really uncover what’s important to ME.  At this time in my life.

And I would encourage you to do the same. 

Because until you can hear your own voice, you’ll never truly know what’s important to you.  And what you want to commit to. 

Here’s to your commitments to yourself in 2011.  May you honor them in the same way that you honor all of the commitments that you make to others.

Because of this, I find that it’s been a challenge to get myself into “work mode” at times.  I feel pulled in so many other directions, and my energy reserves have decreased because of the increased demands. 

During the school year I created my audio blog every Wednesday, and for the summer I have chosen to do every-other-Wednesday.  As today progressed, I found myself not really feeling like I wanted to do the audio blog.

You know how that can be…you find yourself in the land of “I just don’t feel like…”  This is a place I visit from time-to-time, and if you’re human, then you probably do, too.

But in the afternoon, as I sat down at my computer because my kids had gone across the street to play, I got a little nudge.  Not the “you should be doing this…” kind of nudge, but the “you’ve made a commitment that you know you want to keep and here’s an opportunity for you to do so”  kind. 

So I went ahead and scheduled the audio blog on Blog Talk Radio, and I moved forward with the call.  I basically put one foot in front of the other.

Once I was on the call, the enthusiasm and passion returned.  I was feeling so good. 

If I had waited for those feelings to arrive first, I probably would not have done the audio blog at all today.  I would have let myself off the hook, and rationalized with a variety of reasons for why today just wasn’t a good day to do it. 

I also would have gone to bed tonight with that icky feeling – you know the one, kind of a knot-like feeling in your stomach that you get when you’ve let yourself down. 

And you know what else would have happened?  It would have made it easier to not follow through the next time.

That’s why breaking a commitment that we’ve made to ourselves can be such a slippery slope.

Especially when it comes to your health goals, the old “I really don’t feel like getting on the treadmill today…” can lead to letting yourself off the exercise hook for weeks (or more!).

What I’d like to leave you with is that sometimes the action precedes the feelings.  It’s natural to have days where we just don’t feel like doing something.  But once we start getting into motion, we find that the feelings somehow show up;-).

Are you ready for a program that offers you the support you need to consistently stay in action and help you reach your weight loss and health goals even when you don’t particularly “feel like” taking the steps?  Check out the three programs that I’m offering this summer at amazing introductory prices.