A couple years ago I made a New Year’s resolution. It was to stop making New Year’s resolutions.

Like the gaggles of people before me, I had resolved time and time again to lose weight. Because every January first, this time was different.

But was it?

No. It would turn into February and even though I was so “Gung Ho!” on January 1st and joined the millions of others flocking to the gym in January, my motivation eventually waned within weeks and my poor little resolution crumpled. Oh, it was a sad state.

One year, instead, I began to make goals. January 1st was as good a time as any to wipe the slate clean. To reflect at the previous year, learn from mistakes, make new goals and move forward.

So what’s so different about a goal, anyway, and why did that seem to work instead? In the dictionary, “resolution” means, “A formal expression of opinion or intention made.” Or, “A resolving to do something.” Whereas, “goal” means, “The result or achievement toward which effort is directed.”

Where the fatal flaw in my whole “losing weight” scheme was that I was basically standing up, putting my finger up in the air and declaring to the world in my loudest voice, “This year I’m losing weight!”

Which would be all fine and good, but the words “losing weight” are such a blanket statement that I would just begin pounding away at the gym and “dieting” with very little results. Which in hindsight made sense because honestly, I wasn’t sure what the end goal was anyway! I failed to answer some very important questions in my declaration; questions that would point me to a specific goal and a road to get there.

What was my BMI? What was a healthy BMI? What exactly should I be doing at the gym to achieve this? Cardio? Weights? Some combination? Was I making conscious decisions daily about my health? Why was I going into the gym and doing weights but nothing was happening? How was I going to eat? You mean skipping meals isn’t a form of calorie counting?

What would come along with my resolution-wrecking would be the guilt of failing, the feeling of being overwhelmed and not knowing where to start, and of course, in the end, still being overweight. Square one. Year after year. And I finally decided that resolutions just didn’t work for me.

The year I resolved to stop making resolutions (and making my own head hurt!), I began to look at weight-loss as the big picture (no pun intended) and break up the big picture into smaller, individual goals. Not only did the smaller goals look less overwhelming, they actually looked achieveable!

• Instead of looking at my weight-loss goal in one giant number, like, say 50 pounds, I broke it up into 10 pound increments and focused on just those 10. Having to lose 10 pounds takes a lot less time than 50, and plus it gave me a focus. What I found that when I was getting close to my 10 pound “mini-goal”, it would make me work that much harder because I was about to see a whole new “decade” of numbers!
• A ten pound loss meant a pants size! Which coincidentally meant shopping…(a nice reward!)
• Quicker results meant continued motivation. By breaking up my bigger goal into smaller, more achievable ones, I was constantly being refreshed by new motivation.
• Reaching more goals meant more rewards for me! I like a system based on rewards…

Meeting all the little goals eventually meant that the starting point was eventually further away than the finish line. And what became even more valuable was the journey itself. And rather than another failed resolution, I was finally meeting my goal. I was in the driver’s seat this time.

So what about you? Do you make resolutions or have goals and what are they?