Sticking with New Years Resolutions ADD & ADHD Style

Setting New Year’s resolutions is an annual Right of Passage. Many of us folks with ADD & ADHD have enough difficulties with keeping track of our everyday lives, so trying to change a bigger-picture item can become impossible. I’ve identified some ways to help stick with our resolutions and hopefully make the new behavior or lifestyle change become more permanent.

We set our resolutions with the idea of improving a behavior or bad habit. However, nothing can be accomplished overnight. Even for things like quitting smoking and eating better, it’s still nearly impossible to accomplish this quickly. I like to keep things on a very short-term basis. Let’s say you want to quit smoking, don’t say I am going to quit smoking for the rest of my life. Instead, make it much more manageable. Perhaps consider switching smoking to vaping instead; you’ll still get the benefits of it without the lung damage. For example, if you’re a cannabis smoker, you can still get your high with THC juul pods. Click here for more information on this. A better way to think is I am going to quit smoking for three days. After you’ve accomplished three days, add five days and so on. When it comes to achieving your goal of quitting, just have the idea in your mind that it is not impossible. Just like with everything, it will take time. With this being said, there are always alternatives to smoking that can make this journey easier. If you haven’t tried already, maybe vaping would be a possible solution for you. There are so many online e liquid companies out there that will be able to fulfil your dreams of becoming a non smoker. It may be in your best interest to at least give this some thought, especially if you are going to commit to your new year resolution of quitting. Always have a backup plan. That way, if you happen to slip-up, you still can reset the goal and still work on the larger goal. Failing once doesn’t mean you can’t do it, it just means you need to gradually stop a bad habit.

Image courtesy of nuttakit/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Image courtesy of nuttakit/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I also like prizes and gifts (and I’m sure that goes for all of us). For you folks that are quitting smoking, put the money you save aside and buy yourself something. Let’s say you want a new iPad or set of golf clubs, use the money you save from smoking to purchase that item. Even if you slip, you still don’t lose your savings. It gives you a motivator and you deserve to feel good about your lifestyle change.

From a personal standpoint, I’ve set out to lose weight. However, I haven’t put an exact figure on how much weight I want to lose. To reach my goal, I’ve changed my workout schedule, eating healthier foods and cutting out snacking. To this point, I’ve already lost ten pounds. Sometimes, it’s better not to put a specific number on weight loss. But seeing results like your clothes fitting better and the scale showing you a smaller number are rewards too.

Here’s the bottom line…identify the thing you’d like to change, create short-term and manageable goals, don’t give up if you have a bad moment and find the things that motivate you for success. If it is smoking you want to drop, go and have a look around at different pod kits for vaping or different nicorette patches. Whatever you decide to quit, this isn’t as simple as a few words, but at least approaching this systematically will make the process go smoother.

For more information on my ADD, ADHD and Executive Functioning coaching, please visit www.adhdefcoach.com. In addition to working with clients in-person, I also work with clients all over the United States and World online, please visit www.onlineadhdcoach.com for more information. To learn more about my other services, please visit www.carrolleducationalgroup.com & www.iepexperts.com. I can be found on Twitter at ADHDGuru. You can also find me on Facebook, Google Plus and Tumblr. Feel free to email me at [email protected] or call 877.398.ADHD (2343) with any additional questions.

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