Hello again. Welcome back to the savvy psychologist. I'm Dr. Ellen Hendrickson and every

week I'll help you meet life's challenges with evidence-based research, a sympathetic ear, and zero

judgment.

January 1st sparkles with good intentions. This will be the year we finally get in shape,

get serious about love or our career, or get our life together.

But too often, the spark fizzles faster than a 4th of July fireworks display, and most of us are

using that new Boesu ball to help reach the donuts at the top of the kitchen cabinet.

So how to keep your light burning brightly through January and beyond?

It may be easier than you think.

So this week we'll tackle the four most common reasons resolution. than you

the key to think.

to the four most common reasons resolutions fail

and give you the keys to success.

So let's start out with Resolution Roadblock number one, a grand but vague goal. The problem is

starry-eyed resolutions like lose weight, get organized, live life to the fullest, or everybody's favorite catch-all, get healthy,

all have a fatal flaw.

What exactly?

They are vague, which gives them all the credibility of we should get together sometime or worse I'll call you

The fix is be specific you'll know your resolution is specific enough if you can check it off on a list.

So for example, instead of get healthy, try eat fewer than 25 grams of sugar a day, or eat vegetables at every meal, or go to that 7 a.m. yoga class every

Thursday. Quantification is often the key to specificity. So that means defining a specific number of pounds to lose,

number of times a week you'll work out, or what distance you'll run.

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