Mountain Mom and Tots Monthly Outdoor Challenge

NOVEMBER 2018 UPDATE: You can sign up for the current monthly outdoor challenge in the boxes in this post or at www.mountainmomandtots.com/challenge.Happy New Year! What will your 2017 bring? If you made a goal to get outdoors more in 2017, you’re in luck! That’s my 2017 goal too. I wouldn’t call it a resolution because I don’t believe in those.

Instead I’m thinking of it as an outdoor hobby of the month. A monthly outdoor challenge that will encourage me and my kids to get outdoors. Will you join me? There are PRIZES involved!

Monthly Outdoor Challenge Pin

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I Don’t Believe in New Year’s Resolutions

 

Mountain Mom and Baby L on a snow hike  I Don’t Believe in New Year’s Resolutions

I don’t believe in New Years Resolutions. Research by Psychology professor JC Norcross shows that only 77 percent of people kept their New Year’s Resolutions for one week. One week! Only 19 percent were still at it two years later. That’s a failure rate of 81 percent.

So why do so many people make New Years Resolutions if they’re statistically likely to fail? Well, another study by Norcross finds that “Resolvers reported higher rates of success [at weight loss, smoking cessation and exercise programs] than nonresolvers; at six months, 46% of the resolvers were continuously successful compared to 4% of the nonresolvers.”

There is power in attempting to change one’s behavior. Change never happens if you don’t try, but just declaring that the next year will be better in a specific area of life doesn’t work.I Don't Believe in New Years Resolutions

Why doesn’t it work?

A few years ago I read the book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg. In it he discusses the research behind habits and how change really comes to be. Often we focus on getting results instead of changing our habits.

I believe in making goals. I write down specific, measureable actions and give myself a deadline for accomplishing them. But I focus on small things I can do over a short period of time and I allow myself flexibility. I try to create a new habit instead of only looking for results.

Often if we skip a workout, stay up another hour or have another cigarette when we’re trying to quit, we feel like all hope is lost. That’s it. I’m a total failure.

I’ve found that instead of feeling guilty about each slip up, it might just be time to change the goal or habit.

Mountain Mom Quilting

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