I like bite-size brownies better

Change is not easy. And sticking with a change is not easy. One of the most common things that I hear when I recommend a behavior management strategy for parents to use is: "Oh, we've tried that. It worked at first, but then it stopped working." With a little digging, you can often get to the realization that a plan worked at first, and then was difficult to maintain. Thus, the parents stopped working, the strategy stopped working, and the system went back to its status quo.

This relates to two things I've been thinking about this week. First, it's important to break your big goals down into little bite- size pieces. Small manageable sustainable pieces. If you try to do everything at once, you'll get burned out, discouraged and you will stop working. Then the strategy stops working. Then you go back to the status quo... seeing the connection, here?

Sometimes the status quo is something that we don't even think about. We fall into the same old habits after a period of success and then we look around and realize that our efforts have wained. Maybe you were checking your kid's agenda every night for a while and you realize that you haven't seen it in a month. Or you have been going to the gym for a month and then you look up and you haven't been in a week. Or, you scheduled family dinner night but you haven't actually made it home on time because the job is always such a time consumer.

The second thing is that we set ourselves up for success and failure. Not like you think: "how can I make sure I fail at this goal this week." But... let me give you a concrete and personal example. I have a goal to do a certain number of fitness minutes every week. But then, each week I find that I have added more and more non-fitness related activities to my schedule. Although this does not DIRECTLY effect my fitness minutes, per se, it does set me up for failing at my goal. It interferes. It not only reduces my time for fitness, it increases my tiredness, and decreases my motivation. You get me?

So... blog challenge for this week. What is a small bite size goal you have for yourself this week? AND how are you going to help set yourself up for success?

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