While the world waits anxiously for the New Year, individuals all over the world are preparing for resolutions to welcome personal development and meaningful change in their lives.
Dr. Martin Shapiro is a well-respected professor of psychology known for his great experience in areas such as motivation and neuroscience.
He has written an elaborate and extensive manual that provides comprehensive guidelines on how to write impactful and realistic resolutions at New Year.
This book is destined to help people navigate through writing resolutions that can create lasting changes in their lives.
Psychology of Resolutions
Dr. Shapiro shares some figures with us: 48% aim to have better fitness, 38% work on their finances while significant percentages have a focus on improved mental health and weight loss.
However, as he emphasizes with support from psychological research that New Year resolutions can positively impact lives permanently; nonetheless, they remain ineffective tools of behavior change.
The Washington Post says that by mid-February each year almost 80% of the persons who make annual commitments give up.
Dr. Shapiro exposes humanity by noting our innate impulsive nature that makes it hard for us differentiate between short-term acts and long-term goals.
People do not know how to properly value distant consequences or rewards resulting into difficulties in lasting behavioral alterations.
Traps to Avoid
Dr. Martin Shapiro, an accomplished psychologist, explores the underlying causes of why most new year’s resolutions fail to materialize as expected.
For example, he observes situations where people buy fitness gear that sits gathering dust or go to extreme lengths such as adopting paleo diets among other trends.
Additionally, National Institute of Health (NIH) warns against rapid weight loss. The body reads sudden reduction in weight as a sign to hold on energy that results in the rebound effect and eventually making people weigh more than before.
Dr. Shapiro also cautions about over-reliance on self-improvement programs for complicated medical conditions such as drug addiction and depression.
He stresses the need for a sophisticated approach towards these complex challenges (Shapiro).
Effective Strategies for Resolutions
To develop resolutions that stick around longer, ten tips are given by Dr. Shapiro who is knowledgeable in this field:
- Taking the joy and stress away: Have resolutions that make you happy such as beginning some exercises or contacting old friends.
- Breaking it down into short-term goals: Focus on what is happening in the next day or week rather than the whole year, which tends to suit our impulsive nature.
- Good habits are easier to maintain than trying to change everything at once (Shapiro).
- Mistakes are normal: Accept that some of your desirable behaviors will be compromised but quickly return to those behaviors.
- Maintain your weight well: Appreciate genetics in regard to weight and go for slow steady loss of weight.
- Food changes should be sustainable: Gradually adopt a different way of eating instead of radical temporary diets (Shapiro).
- Honor Successes: Recognize and celebrate small steps taken even if they don’t lead towards original goals
- Reviewing goals regularly helps one stay on course with their plans (Shapiro).
- Find a support system among your peers that will help you maintain your resolutions at all times (Shapiro).
- Resolutions are meant to be fun: Don’t depend of New Year’s resolutions as a means of turning your life around; make them enjoyable and low-stakes.
In conclusion, Dr Shapiro, Martin has provided an excellent guide for navigating through new year’s resolutions successfully.
By understanding human behavior, Psychology offers insights that can be used by individuals while coming up with their own realistic yet sustainable resolutions for long term success in life (Shapiro).
In conclusion, these strategies could help in meaningful personal growth as we approach 31st December every year.