MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Many people make New Year’s resolutions in an effort to improve their lives, but Stephanie McWilliams, Clinical instructor and assistant director in the department of psychology at WVU encourages to plan and think about contingencies.
McWilliams was a guest on Talkline and said resolutions are typically big behavior changes, so people need to be realistic and surround yourself with a support system.
“Who’s on-board with you? Have you shared your goals with people? Is there anybody checking on you?,”McWilliams asked,”That is often times what will lead people into that depressed failure mode when they don’t have people backing them up, because I think people think it’s all on them.”
McWilliams says be reasonable and have multiple contingency plans to help stay the course.
“As of January 1, I’m going to the gym six days a week for an hour a day-that’s a plan for failure right there,” McWilliams said,”If you don’t have the time planned out and you’ve never acted in that way, it’s not a likely possibility that you’ll be able to immediately take on that type of behavior change.”
She says one of the keys to being successful is to keep yourself on track.
“For whatever reason people seem to need that “new beginning” in order to get back on track,”McWilliams said,”But, if you’re constantly saying “I need to push myself back on track no matter what day it is, no matter what hour it is and you assume you’re going to fail then usually you’re more successful.”
Happy New Year and good luck!