change

/regarding new year's resolutions
1. “start with big changes, not small ones,” a strategy likely to yield immediate, noticeable benefits that inspire more positive change.

2. to act like the kind of person you are trying to become; even if you hit the jogging trail with 30 pounds of flab, think of yourself as the jock you want to be.

3. to “reframe” the situation. Recovering alcoholics, for example, have a higher chance of success if they reframe their sober life as a divorce from a tumultuous love affair with drinking, because they can then look back at their old life as a romantic adventure, rather than a sinkhole of regret.

4. “don’t do it alone” advice that is the bedrock of 12-step programs.

Many resolutions fail, she said, because people assume they have to be ready for a change before they make it. In reality, she said, “the only thing that convinces the brain that it is O.K. to change is to see it change.”

“Don’t listen to your feelings,” Dr. Jacobs said. “Feelings lie.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/01/fashion/01change.html?pagewanted=1&8dpc&_r=1