Plan big, think small when making behavior-changing goals for 2011

CEDAR RAPIDS - There's nothing wrong with thinking big when setting goals.

Holding yourself to those big plans, however, could mean setting yourself up to fail, says a Cedar Rapids psychologist and psychology professor.

"It's very good to set goals,” said Don Damsteegt, psychologist at Family Psychology Associates, 1221 Center Point Rd. NE, in Cedar Rapids and a psychology professor at Mount Mercy University. “When you set a goal it sets up a discrepancy in your brain between what is and what you want.”

When setting goals, however, we typically address them in one of two ways: if we don't make the progress we want, we toss it aside and forget about it, or we change our behavior and make it work.

“If the goal is too big, it's much easier to just throw it out,” he said. “If it's a small goal we're more likely to keep trying to reach it.”

According to research done by the pschology department at the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pa., 75 percent of those who make New Year's resolutions will still be successful by this time of the month, and 50 percent will make it to the end of the month. By the time we get to July, a little more than 40 percent will still be working on their resolutions.

One of the keys to success, Damsteegt said, is to plan big but start small.

“If you say, for example, ‘My goal is to lose 50 pounds,' then you restrict your diet for a day or two, you get hungry, you step on the scale and haven't lost anything, then you get disappointed and throw it out,” he said.

“But if you change it and say, ‘I want to lose 10 pounds by the end of January,' the goal becomes more manageable.

“Start small by changing small behaviors,” Damsteegt said. “Don't self-sabotage.”

The American Psychological Association offers some tips for being more successful with goals and resolutions:

Change one behavior at a time. Rather than try to lose weight, quit smoking and giving up soda all at once, tackle them one at a time.

Talk about it. Find a support system or someone who shares the same goal.

Don't beat yourself up. Damsteegt said the difference between someone who fails and someone who succeeds is that the successful person fails and keeps trying.

Damsteegt offers one more tip: set sub-goals.

"It makes them seem more attainable,” he said. “There's sort of an illusion that they're easier, and it gives us a sense of self-efficacy, a belief in ourselves.”

---- Acknowledge your victories, Damsteegt said, and be proud of them.

---- “Our own self-criticism is much more painful than someone else's criticism, and our own praise of ourselves is more powerful than anyone else's,” he said.