How many times were you asked what your New Year’s Resolutions were yesterday? Nearly every conversation that I had, “resolutions” came up. Of course, the answers were typically some variation of losing weight, exercising more, and drinking less. De ja vu.

At the most basic level, these resolutions are 27 foot goals. Recently, I was in a seminar where the speaker talked about 3, 6, 9, 12, 15, 18, 21,24,27 foot goals. He facilitated an exercise where people were split into groups for each distance. They were then lined up facing a horseshoe pit and given 6 horseshoes. You can imagine the results. The group at 3 feet “ringed” every horseshoe. The group at 6 feet ringed most of theirs, but as you can imagine the group at 27 feet didn’t ring any. When we say we are going to “lose weight” or “get into shape” the behavioral change is so dramatic that our odds of completing the action are similar to ringing a 27 foot toss.

If we can set achievable goals, the odds of success improve dramatically. Instead of trying to lose weight, a 3 foot goal might be to cut one monster burrito out of our meals for the week and replace it with a salad. When the 3 foot accomplishments pile up, the 27 foot “resolutions” result. Meanwhile the behavioral patterns are being rewritten to make the “change” more consistent. A good place to start is reading the The Power of Habit, which is an incredible study into the formation of the habit loop in the human brain.

So, what are your resolutions? I mean 3 footers. 🙂

Photo used under the creative commons license by Liz Mc.