Why make a New Years resolution when you can make a One Decision?
Why make a New Years resolution when you can make a OneDecision? If you want to lose weight, pay off your credit card,or get organized, you have a bigger decision to make. By JudithWright Research shows that the average New Years Resolutionfails within three weeks. That means that 21 days after the balldrops, the champagne is gone, and the streamers have all beenswept away, your grand resolution to lose weight/pay off yourdebt/quit smoking is going to turn into a big disappointment.Why do we fail at our New Years Resolutions year after year?Sure, there are a lucky (and determined) few who manage to stickto their goals, but most of us find ourselves wondering whatwent wrong. Many people think they need to set smaller goals,but what Im about to tell you may contradict everything youveheard before. Your New Years Resolutions arent big enough.Your goals arent big enough. What Ive found in working withpeople for over 20 years is not that their goals need to bescaled back, but that they dont want enough. They haventthought about why they want what they want?why they want to loseweight or quit smoking. They havent identified a bigger purposeand meaning within their goals, so they are running on sheerwill power and are, at best, only successful in a few areas.More than just setting goals. Its a revolutionary concept: ifyou identify what you really, truly want from your New YearsResolution, youll find that reaching smaller goals is verydo-able, almost natural. Your resolution has to be more thanjust setting goals for the next year. It has to be a decisionabout what matters to you and what you really want from life. Icall it the One Decision. A One Decision is a very personalchoice about who you are and what you care about. The OneDecision gives you a reason to go through what it takes to notonly achieve your goals, but also to change your life. If Lancecan do it, so can you. Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour deFrance champion, didnt just set a goal to win the Tour deFrance. He made a bigger commitment about living strong, andthat is what gave him the courage and strength to keep winning.Thats a One Decision. You may be thinking, ” But I dont wantto win the Tour de France! I just want to fit into my jeans!”The power of
the One Decision is that once you make it, you willnot only achieve the goals in front of you, but also you willexpand your vision to encompass much bigger and morefar-reaching goals. Losing weight by loving yourself. Carrie hadtried every diet imaginable–no sugar, no fat, no salt, nowheat, no “white things;” the blood type and body type diets,high fiber diets, liquid diets, and special food diets. Shesbeen on cabbage broth diets, egg diets, celery diets, tunadiets, cottage cheese diets, and even grapefruit diets. In thepast 40 years, Carrie has gained and lost enough pounds to equalher total body weight (and probably yours too!). Needless tosay, simply resolving to lose weight never worked for her. ThenCarrie made her One Decision–she decided to “love herselfbeyond measure as a unique gift of Gods love.” From making thatdecision, she is beginning to treat her body very differently.When she gets hungry, Carrie asks herself, “What would you feedsomeone you really loved?” By default she started getting moreexercise, deciding that shes worth the extra attention it takesto really take care of herself. Carrie has accepted that shewont be thin overnight–but by making this larger commitmentshes already lost over 20 pounds that wont be coming back.This New Years, you have the opportunity to not only achievesome goals, but also change your life for the better. Forever.What will your One Decision be?
Judith Wright–best-selling author, educator, consultant, andlifestyles expert–has appeared on The Today Show, Good MorningAmerica, Fox & Friends and over 300 other radio and TV programs.Her new book, The One Decision (Tarcher, 12/29/05), is endorsedby Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard, Tom Peters, and many others.Visit Judith Wright at www.judithwright.com.
About the author:
About Judith Wright
JUDITH WRIGHT (www.judithwright.com) is hailed as a peerlesseducator, world-class coach, lifestyles expert, inspirationalspeaker, best-selling author, and corporate consultant. In herfirst book, There Must Be MORE Than This: Finding More Life,Love, and Meaning by Overcoming Your Soft Addictions, sheexamines how Soft Addictions often get in the way of a morefulfilling life. In her new book, The One Decision,
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