New Year's Resolution: How to keep it...a documented experiment

On New Year’s Eve you can see everyone celebrating in all different ways. My friends and I went to Bella’s in Tampa, and watched the fireworks from the roof of a building to get a good view.  There was a mix of us up there. Most people aren’t in recovery and don’t necessarily need it, one friend in this group is a hard-core alcoholic, in the precontemplation stage of the transtheoretical model’s Stages of Change¹.

One girl was in recovery for alcoholism and the rest were “normal”.  Guess what normal people want to do on New Year’s Eve. Drink? That’s half of it, but it seems that my “normal friends” want to drink until they get sick. That’s the difference in alcoholics and normal people. Normal people get sick and experience adverse effects from alcohol after the euphoric feelings fade, or one drinks past them.

I felt bad for the girl in recovery, because she was an alcoholic and last night could have been a major trigger for her to relapse. I only met her earlier in the night and asked if she was okay with being around such a powerful trigger. If I had been more familiar with her I would have put it a different way. Thankfully, she eventually rudely left the rest of us before midnight. People who don’t drink are such a bore. Yaaawn! I’m kidding, but last night’s situation, for her, was no joke. She has built six months of abstinence from alcohol and I would have been embarrassed and a hypocrite if she had given in. “Make no provision for sin”, the Bible states somewhere. This being my first blog post please forgive me for my rusty bibliography etiquette….or just laziness. I’m sure someone can help us out with the verse and book in the comment section below.

So, now that we know what “normal people” do during the celebration of the new, upcoming year; what do they do on the first day of that year? I now know, because I was up fairly early in spite of my late night babysitting gig, and I didn’t see many people out and about, but I found them soon enough. There were lines at the treadmills at my gym. Anytime Fitness has a unique quality. I’d bet you couldn’t guess it, but this is Focused Life’s blog, ultimately and not mine. I’d be responsible if I started a gambling addiction in someone, before I could really even get a chance to help anyone else out.

People make resolutions, and I’ll bet (gentlemen’s wager) that one of the first three days of January is the busiest day of your local gym’s year. And, in the first 30 days of this blog we are going to explore what makes January busy, but then people’s level of commitment has the tendency to slowly lose steam. To remind myself of the realities of the human tendency to skip I am going to make my resolution public, which is even higher stakes than the prospect of attempting this without posting it for everyone to see. However, if anyone is a smoker and is tired of that nasty habit, as I am; I invite you to quit smelling like a stale chemical explosion, with me. In fact, if there is a commitment that you would like to make and really be successful, we are going to be using the latest available tools of psychological/social sciences, medicine and group accountability to ensure the greatest odds of success (I swear I'm not making references to gambling on purpose.)
                                                               

If you smoke, seriously, do you realize how stupid we are for not trying to quit, at least after every pack. I get it, though. I know the reasons that we smoke, but they are silly sitting next to the consequences of being a smoker. We’ll get more into that later. I want to talk about some of the tools that we do have available to make or efforts more effective. I know some people may think of some of these tools as a crutch; which as actually an accurate assessment. When you have a broken leg, guess what the doctors might suggest you use? 

Some of the available tools are simply processes of change, some are social and psychological insights and theories. Some are medical and replacement tools. We will visit introductions to psychological sciences as a means of change like Neuro Linguistic Programming, Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy, Processes implemented by self-help geniuses, like the late, great Stephen R. Covey, author of, "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People". I will try to anticipate the timing to coincide with tools that will help us all stick with it, especially during the first 30 days of this blog. I am in desperate need of feedback and suggestions to accomplish this. Please, if you have a resolution and don't make it on your first try or you haven't started yet, prepare to get back up or prepare to get started. Make your plan. Decide what you will do to draw motivation and fight urges or procrastination. 

If you are going to quit smoking, like me, realize what you are up against and treat it accordingly. I've been an off and on (only off when I was in jail or rehab) smoker for over 15 years. Why does it always creep back into my life? I think I have a reverence for the processes and tools and the willingness to attack this addiction with all I've got now. I expect to never smoke again, once I stop. I am confident for a reason, though. I have been studying self-help expert's processes of change for over ten years now, and very seriously over the last three. I don't envision myself as a smoker and I am going to make reality snap to congruence with my vision. The momentum from this victory will give me the confidence and experience to make new victories in my life afterwards. I've got a big year ahead and I will need that momentum, so I have every reason (motivation) to quit and not relapse. If I do, it's not the end of the world, I'll post it and keep trying and I hope you'll do the same. I've prepared for this and though a relapse is possible early on this thing is not going to beat me.

I’m going to be using a prescription called Chantix. Perhaps some of you have heard of it. I hear that it can make you suicidal and depressed as a common side effect. So what, I say. If it gives me the advantage that I need to no longer pay for Phillip Morris’ gas bill,(Phillip Morris is a huge corporation that makes money of off cigarette smokers. He is also the personification, for the purpose of this blog, of the evil that continuing such a devastating, addictive product to the public is.) then I’d take my chances without a way to lose technically, because either way I’m not giving him another dime, past my stop date. 
(Two things: I know. I just had be different, and make my resolution day the 7^th of this month, at 11:59 pm and whatever your resolution is, you can take some time to prepare. You don’t have to wait until next January.)

Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very
important part of your life. 
--Brooke Shields

I hope that you will join me, holding me accountable to my resolution of a healthier lifestyle this year. It’s nothing crazy, just go to the gym at least three times a week, do cardio three times a week, being more aware of what I eat. I can start eating right, this instant. I plan to go to the gym and do cardio, tomorrow, as well as make a routine out on the 5^th. Of course, that just leaves kicking smoking’s ass. I vow to always be truthful to anyone who might read this and please join in and make your life better somehow. Just do that thing you want to, or stop that thing that you don’t. Use this blog as a means to ensure you win. Thanks.

Happy 2015,

Ryan

Rob in back, Obee to your left, Tristan to your right, Chelsea right front, Ryan holding the camera

1.    http://www.uri.edu/research/cprc Cancer Prevention Research Center