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Surviving the Vicious Cycle of Making & Breaking New Year's Resolutions

Humor Experiment #3: Cutting through the Crap

By Chris Dunmire, CoachingYourCreativity.com

Are you plagued each new year with the esteem-deflating cycle of making and breaking your New Year's Resolutions before the month of January turns the corner on week two?

If so, here's some good news: I've designed the perfect tool for you to use to decipher which New Year's Resolutions you actually have a chance at seeing through at least until April, before concerns over paying taxes to the IRS totally depresses you.

Print the easy-to-use New Year's Resolutions Worksheet »

I call it my "Surviving the Vicious Cycle of Making & Breaking New Year's Resolutions Worksheet" and this is how it works:

First, you list up to 10 of your New Year's Resolutions. Then, you follow a series of steps to help you eliminate which resolutions are most likely to fall off the page or dissolve into an afterthought when nobody's looking, or your hormones shift, or there's a sale at the grocery store, or you make up with your partner, or Oprah recommends a new book, or, or...

Here's the process of elimination after listing your resolutions. Don't fret about remembering all of these steps, because you can download and print my handy-dandy New Year's Resolutions Worksheet here and pass it around to all of your family members, friends, co-workers, chat buddies, and other significant people so they can do their own worksheet.

List your 10 resolutions, then:

a. Cross off the ones you’ve tried before, but ditched before January 15th.

b. Then cross off the ones you’re doing for your friends/co-workers/family/partner/etc.

c. Next cross off the ones TV commercials have berated or guilted you into doing.

d. Now cross off the ones you generated by saying, “I should/would/could...”

e. Then cross off the ones you think “your life will be perfect when...”

f. Next cross off the ones you’re doing out of spite, jealousy, anger, hate, or revenge.

g. Now cross off the ones you know your heart is not really into.

h. Then cross off any others that are variable on your mood, hormones, Mercury Retrograde, etc.

i. Now look at your remaining list. If you feel strongly that these resolutions will still be important to you in April when you’re trying to get your tax returns done, you’re on your way to success!

IMPORTANT: If everything on your list is crossed out, you just learned why New Year’s Resolutions don’t work for you. This knowledge is key to breaking the vicious cycle.

Pretty cool, huh? Now just think of how much time and energy this little worksheet will save you in years to come. The ultimate resolution making/breaking solution. •

© 2007 Chris Dunmire, CoachingYourCreativity.com. All rights reserved. (12/29/07). Please do not duplicate this article elsewhere without my permission.

About the Author
Chris Dunmire is the author of the Dollar Bill Origami Money Plant and driving force behind the popular Creativity Portal Web site. She finds meaning as an artist, humorist, and creativity coach and channels her overactive imagination into multiple containers on display at ChrisDunmire.com.