New Week's Resolution - Week 19 (Feb 24 - Mar 2)

Welcome to the first week of the rest of your life! Now seems like a perfect time to select a New Week's Resolution.

What is a New Week's Resolution? It's exactly the same as a New Year's Resolution, with two important distinctions: it only lasts for one week, and you can start one any time you want, rather than just once per year.

So what's wrong with New Year's Resolutions? According to some quick Google research, just one thing: they DON'T WORK!

• 23% of people quit within the first week
• 43% quit by the end of January
• 80% quit by mid-February
• 92% fail to make it a full year

Why such high rates of failure? Probably because most resolutions fail to follow these simple steps from the SMART method:

• Specific - "exercise more" is vague; "hit the gym twice this week" is specific
• Measurable - did I go twice? Yes or no?
• Achievable - "drink a gallon of water per day" may not be realistic; drink 8oz is
• Relevant - if it doesn't matter to YOU, why bother?
• Time-bound - keep your goal for this week something quick you can reach THIS week

With these thoughts in mind, what is ONE thing you want to do this week? Some examples may include:

• Hit the gym two times this week
• Cook a meal from scratch three times this week
• Go to bed no later than 10pm every night
• Limit myself to one alcoholic beverage this week
• Finish two pages of my family photo album

...and so on. While this is very similar in nature to the famous "Just Give Me 10 Days" series, that challenge focuses primarily on weight loss and diet control, whereas this challenge is of a broader nature, including interpersonal relationships, home improvements, health and fitness and more. Just pick something specific you wish to focus upon, set a number goal you can reach (or not), and make status updates to document your progress. This will be a judgment-free zone: if you do not reach your goal, take the time to figure out why not (too big a goal, life happened, etc), and forgive yourself, because you can always try again next week.