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Clinic Offers Advice On Keeping Resolutions

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By LINDSAY PETERSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 31, 2008

What's the point of making New Year's Resolutions, people ask. They only get broken.

The Menninger Clinic in Houston offers some advice.

Before you commit to a resolution, take a look at why you want to make one in the first place.

"Do you really want to make the change?" asks John O'Neill, director of Addiction Services for The Menninger Clinic. If not, making a resolution can be counterproductive and lead to an unnecessary sense of failure.

For those who do want to make a change, O'Neill offers the following five tips:

1. Devise a strategy. Simply saying you want to do something does not work. Consider the strategy and outline the process of change that is simple and realistic.

2. Keep resolutions to a minimum. Attempting to stop or start multiple things can get old. "Keep change simple…and tackle one major change at a time," O'Neill says.

3. Develop accountability partners. Lock in someone who will support your change.

4. Appreciate the changes you are attempting and reward yourself throughout the process.

5. Attend to your stress. Many resolutions center on smoking, drinking and other things we do to cope with stress. When we change the behaviors, we need a new plan to manage stress.

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