By Lauren Johnson
It’s New Year’s resolution time again and you’ve been thinking about helping your child get healthy. This is the year you’re going to do it. That’s great! You’re on the right track. But…as any gym owner will tell you, though the treadmills might be full of determined exercisers every January, come March or April, the gym’s back to normal again. So why are New Year’s resolutions so hard to keep?
According to clinical psychologist Dr. Amanda di Bartolomeo, there’s good reason people lose patience when trying to make changes: “Changing behavior can be hard because it takes time. When you think of how long it took to develop the habits you have now – most of them have been developed over a lifetime – it makes sense that changing these behaviors would take time and effort.” But don’t despair. When you start thinking of achieving your goals as a long game, momentum can be your ally. “Starting with very small changes is more likely to lead to success and the feeling of success motivates maintaining new behaviors.”
