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Setting Midyear Resolutions
If you were like me this past New Year’s Eve, you may have been hesitant about setting any resolutions. The future seemed more uncertain than usual, so why bother setting goals that may not even be possible to achieve?
That logic was fair then. But now that it’s June, our daily lives are becoming more predictable. There’s little reason to avoid assessing where things are right now and evaluating your priorities and dreams. It’s time to set some midyear goals!
Join me today in setting some goals for the remainder of the year. Set yourself up for success by making resolutions that are:
specific and measurabledifficult but attainableshort term and time limitedimportant to youstated positively
People fail to meet goals because they are often too broad or too ambitious. For example, if your goal is to “Stop eating so much,” reframe it using the guidelines: “I will eat one more serving of vegetables a day for the next three weeks because giving my body the nutrition it needs is part of good self-care.”
What goal can you set today that will set you on the path to intentional living?
The 1-Minute Secret to Forming a New Habit
Being unambitious can be more productive than you think.
We all know the struggle with motivation is real. Where the heck is it when you need to try something new or develop a healthy habit? It turns out that we might be relying too heavily on this magical force that we can’t always summon at will.
A senior fellow at U.C. Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center and author of The Sweet Spot: How to Achieve More by Doing Less, Christine Carter, Ph.D., has a new take on this challenging concept. Dr. Carter suggests that what prevents us from sticking to our goals is not our lack of motivation but our unwillingness to fail. In other words, our fear of failure keeps us from doing the work to reach the goal in the first place.
Instead of always striving to be and do our utmost best (let’s face it, I get caught in this trap too), Dr. Carter suggests we aim for better than nothing. That’s right, just a smidgen above nada.
For example, when I restarted my daily journaling practice, I set my goal at 30 minutes a day. But I quickly realized that my goal was too ambitious, and I wanted to quit. Instead, I came up with a better-than-nothing plan: 5 minutes a day. Once I noticed how good it felt to dive into reflecting and journal writing, I naturally wanted to do more, and now I’m writing for 10 minutes most days.
When you are willing to let go of trying to do things perfectly, you might even find the space to celebrate small successes along the way—and that is reinforcing.
Listen to Dr. Carter’s 10-minute TED Talk to find out how to set goals and achieve them one better-than-nothing step at a time.
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“Who I am is always changing, not because I am being fake but because I am always open to growth and transformation.” —yung pueblo
Finding Freedom: Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset
Put less energy into seeking perfection and more into learning.
Having a growth mindset is having the belief that skills and abilities are developed through practice and hard work. This differs from a fixed mindset, which is the belief that you’re born with certain qualities, such as talent, intelligence, personality, and so on.
Those with a fixed mindset don’t think it is possible to make changes to intelligence and skills, regardless of the persistence, time, and effort put in. If you have this mindset, you may avoid situations that challenge you out of fear of getting it wrong.
If you have a fixed mindset, you may also have difficulty accepting mistakes, which is a toxic quality of perfectionism, because you don’t embrace your mistakes or the chance to grow from them.
Those with a growth mindset are passionate about problem solving and learning new things. They embrace challenges and are resilient in the face of setbacks.
Which mindset do you have? Read my blog post to see the different traits of each mindset, plus discover ways to develop and strengthen a growth mindset.
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The Disparate Impact of Eating Disorders
Gain insight into the inequities in access, treatment, and recovery—and how you can help.
Eating disorders don’t discriminate. Yet studies continue to reveal harmful biases in the diagnosis and treatment of eating disorders. Let’s look at what the research tells us:
Those in the BIPOC community are less likely to receive a diagnosis or to be referred to treatment for an eating disorder, even when they are equally symptomatic to white counterparts.Stress due to discrimination and acculturation worsens body dissatisfaction and ED symptoms in BIPOC individuals.Clinicians are less likely to ask people of color about their eating habits, and are less likely to refer them to further evaluation or treatment, even after eating disorder symptoms were indicated on a health screening.Those identified as BIPOC are more likely to binge eat than white individuals.Compared to people at higher weights, those who are underweight are significantly more likely to receive a diagnosis, to perceive a need for treatment, and to receive treatment.The frequency of loss-of-control eating is associated with perceived discrimination among Black and Latino men.Eating disorders are not significantly higher in skinny, white, affluent girls. They impact all races, body sizes, income levels, and genders.
To learn more about the inequities in access to eating disorder care—and about what you can do to improve awareness and end stigma—read my full Psychology Today article.
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