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So you want to change? Really? At this time of year many people have taken stock and decided they want to alter some aspect of their lives, setting goals and trying to establish effective New Year’s resolutions. Most of these people fail miserably and do not make the changes they would like for reasons that will become clear.

These lessons have come through experimentation with hundreds of clients and through learning the hard way myself. One of my work specialism is now how to get lasting behavioural change so here is the best of what I’ve found. This year I have made some major changes I’ve utterly changed my diet and established regular gym workouts to transform my body, moved into my own place from living with others, made many sometimes painful relationship and business changes, got into the habit of seeing my niece regularly (who lives a way away), got divorced from aikido to marry cage-fighting, etc. I’ve also failed in some of my 2011 aims my books remains half-written but I’m OK with this and am learning why. Stuff happens, things beyond our control changes and we all do the best we can. Here’s how to give yourself the best chance possible of change in 2012:

The Rhythm of Behavioural Change

Why if we all have stuff we want to do differently do we find it hard to change? Why do most gyms sell 90% of memberships in January but 90% of these people are not there in March? Why are there still smokers talking about quitting but not doing it? Why don’t diets work? It doesn’t make sense at first glance that people don’t make changes that are obviously good for them, but we as systems in wider systems, are “homeostatic” we try and remain the same. Everything in the universe is constantly shifting but coal does not suddenly turn into diamonds without some energy. People too can often be the victims of our “bureaucracy of habit” which keeps us doing the same thing ad getting the same results even when we dont like them. As in physics a certain activation energy like the movement in striking a match is needed to overcome this and start a new self-perpetuating process. Change has a rhythm which involves initial excitement usually overcoming established entropy (January when you in the gym for example), a dangerous period where excitement has diminished but resistance remains high and the old system reasserts itself (February when most people start to quit the gym) and a maintenance period where the new pattern become self sustaining and requires some but little effort (March when you are a regularif you made it that far). Given this rhythm the time to get a personal trainer or gym buddy (support and reminder) is February not January. The good news is any pattern you can maintain for 90 days will likely continue.

 

Why New Years Resolutions Don’t Work And 9 Principles to make them work

1. No Commitment

“Well you know I should really give up smoking” “I kinda want to find a new job” “I guess my relationship could be better” Shut up you’re wasting your time and mine! What will you commit to doing? By commit I mean in the same way you’re committed to keeping your balls/ovaries. Real, 100% heart-felt commitment that is resistant to outside interference (because there WILL be some). Commitment involves connecting what we really want to change to what matters most to us. Change is emotional more than logical. This is the most important principle as deep values drive what we do and commitment aligned with them provides the necessary motivation for new action.

2. No alignment

The reason we say one thing and end up doing something else is that we have competing commitments. We want to go to the gym but we also want to relax after work. We want to eat vegetables but we also want the pleasure of eating cakes! Etc. Another way of looking at this is that we have different parts of ourselves and these need to be given a voice and aligned. If a change threatens another need/commitment it must be addressed or you will self-sabotage. What are the pay-offs of not changing? Behavioural change within oneself is actually a committee process! As many of our “commitments” are unconscious, the first stage is to identify what they are and give them a “voice”. Voice dialogue/Big Mind is a great way to do this. We may also have limiting beliefs that need identifying and addressing before any real change can happen. Successful change is aligned, authentic and paradoxically, self-accepting. If change is driven by one part ourselves Calvinistically judging and bashing another part there will be a rebellion before long (February usually)!

3. Not specific or positive

What very concretely are you going to do differently? A fuzzy commitment is no commitment at all. Let’s look at the two part of the first sentence in more detail: What specifically and measuredly (you have to be able to know if you’re done it or not), will you do differently (only commit to positive actions not the outcome or “don’ts” as the unconscious mind tends not to ignore the negative, so whenever you say “don’t eat the cake” your brain hears “eat the cake”). Break big things down into little doable things that don’t scare you (thanks to Paul Sheppard for reminding me of this one).

Example: “I will eat less junk”to will drink semi-skimmed milk, eat fruit as a snack and meat and vegetables in the evenings”.

4. No vision

What can you picture? New possibilities begin in the mind. Until we can start to imagining things being different we won’t start to work towards it so visualisation, with as much detail as possible is a key start. It’s not magic of course and you still have to go do the work to meet your goals so visualise this too, not just the end result.

Example: I wanted to be in a healthy loving relationship so I started to imagine what this might look like as I really hadn’t pictured it before

5. No embodiment

What do you need to embody? We are not just psychological and for change to occour and stick we need to change at the level of who we are. This is perhaps the hardest one to explain in a short blog whoever the list of embodied resources here will be a start. What is critical is that we need to practice a different way of being.

Example: Let’s say you’re working on being a better listener, what is the body of that? More open or closed? Faster or slower? When I made some shifts in this direction I realised I needed to be more aware of my back, more open, slower and have a more relaxed muscle tone. I’m still not a great listener but I’ve definitely improved and know what “the body” of this way of being is.

6. No reminders

How will you remember? This is a real simple one but easy to forget people forget what they said they were going to do as life get’s busy again and habit reinforces itself so we need to have reminders to do stuff. Anything reliable that you won’t miss will do high or low tech. On the latter front there are some good online tools for both measuring, publicly declaring and reminding you of change efforts such as these.

Example: When I started new exercise classes I put them in my diary and set-up reminders on my phone half an hour before.

7. Poor behavioural architecture

How can you make it easy for yourself? Think how hard it is not to drink alcohol if you work in a pub, you keep beer at home and you buy your food in a shop full of booze? How easy is it if you live in Saudi Arabia? While of course people do find ways to drink in “dry” countries, because it is a lot harder most people will drink less. Similarly, any change effort can be supported or hindered by how the things around you set-up the ease of particular decisions. Nudge is a great book on this.

Example: Getting smaller plates and only keeping healthy food in the house when dieting. Joining a gym close to your work. (I did these in 2011)

8. No support

Who’s helping? Who’s hindering? Our network of relationships can keep our current behaviour in place or support change efforts. We may also need to change our network to a more supportive one parole officers are very aware of this one! We are social animals and change is very difficult if tried alone. Good support is a mix of fluffy nice encouragement and kick-ass challenge and accountability (can be different people). We must also align any change efforts with cultural factors to go back to the Saudi example British ex-pats continue to drink when living in Saudi Arabia because of their national cultural identity. If they wanted to give-up finding non-drinking British role-models would help.

9. No consideration

What are you like? One size does not fit all and we all do change differently. What motivates us and how we like to learn and grow must be taken into account. Some people like a very goal orientated, measured approach, others a more flowing, organic or values driven way. Some are more private in their change efforts, some much more extroverted.

An Integral Model of Change

People tend to be good at looking at one or two of the areas I’ve identified but not all of them. To give yourself the best possible chance of behavioural change you should consider both the internal and external, plural and singular to use Ken Wilber’s classic model. You may find the best leverage where you are not used to working.

 

Inner psychological change, alignment and values work

“I”

 

Embodied and behavioural change

“It”  

Cultural alignment and social support

“We”

Behavioural architecture and resources for change

“Its”

Effective New Years Resolutions Conclusion

The principles and integral approach above will really help any resolutions you’re making this year. Behavioural change is also still a mystery in some ways, human beings are complex and hard to predict so experiment and enjoy

 

Resources:

PEESMART The behavioural change system I use at work

Why New Year’s Resolutions Don’t Work – an older smaller article on this I wrote

A Buddhist angle on resolutions

A trainer friend on values and resolutions

Online goal tools

Behavioural change coaching is of course available contact me on for support or try Paul Shepard, Dawn Bentley or Francis Briers if you don’t like me

Dr. David Szymanski, associate professor of kinesiology and Eva Cunningham Endowed Professor in Education at Louisiana Tech University, has been selected to present at the National Strength and Conditioning Association’s (NSCA) annual Coaches Conference, January 7 in San Antonio, Texas.

The presentation titled, “In-season Training for the Pitcher – The Why and How,” will describe the physiological responses to baseball pitching during simulated and intra-squad games. Szymanski will offer specific recommendations for designing in-season strength and conditioning programs for starting, middle relief, and closing pitchers.

“This is a great opportunity to inform those in attendance about the research we are doing at Louisiana Tech with the baseball team and then describe how to use the information in an attempt to train baseball pitchers optimally based on their pitching role,” said Szymanski.

Szymanski, who specializes in exercise physiology, was the 2008 recipient of Louisiana Tech’s Virgil Orr Undergraduate Junior Faculty Award and the College of Education’s Outstanding Faculty Research Award.  His research interests include baseball and batted-ball velocity, baseball and throwing velocity, sports performance, and body composition.

In addition to his teaching and research activities, Szymanski is also the head strength and conditioning coach for the Bulldog baseball team.  In 2011, Szymanski was elected to serve as president of Louisiana Tech’s Faculty Senate as well as an at-large seat on the NSCA’s Board of Directors.

“Since we have been conducting baseball related research here for the last five years, graduate students from around the country are now looking at attending Louisiana Tech to continue their education, assist in training the baseball team, and having the opportunity to get jobs in professional baseball,” Szymanski said.

“One of our former graduate students is working as a minor league hitting instructor with the St. Louis Cardinals, one is working as a Triple-A strength and conditioning coach for the Minnesota Twins, and another will have an internship as a strength and conditioning coach this summer, also with the Twins.”

The NSCA’s Coaches Conference offers a combination of education, the latest sports science information, and practical field coaching presentations.  The conference is comprised of lectures and hands-on sessions from top coaches, practitioners and researchers, sharing their multi-sport conditioning expertise.

The NSCA is an international nonprofit educational association founded in 1978 that serves nearly 30,000 members in 52 countries. Drawing upon its vast network of members, the NSCA develops and presents the most advanced information regarding strength training and conditioning practices, injury prevention, and research findings.

 

Florida A&M University is creating a new committee to look for ways to end hazing.

The university has been under scrutiny since band member Robert Champion died in November in what police said was the result of hazing.

“The FAMU Anti-Hazing Committee will be forward-looking and will be charged with seeking solutions to hazing,” said Board of Trustee Member Belinda Shannon. “It will look at how other institutions addressed hazing problems and examine what has worked. It will also look at how to best get students to resist hazing.”
The committee will consist of five members who are recognized experts in hazing and who are independent of FAMU, officials said. Committee members are expected to be appointed by the end of the month.

Shannon said that the committee will not examine or investigate the circumstances of recent hazing incidents at FAMU, or any other matters under investigation by law enforcement, so as not to conflict with any on-going reviews. FAMU had a task force headed by former Attorney General Bob Butterworth, but disbanded it last month, so as not to conflict with law enforcement investigations. The Florida Board of Governors has also appointed Chancellor Frank Brogan to investigate whether FAMU administrators sufficiently dealt with hazing allegations prior to Champion’s death.

FAMU officials say they also plan to establish an on-campus memorial for Champion and a scholarship in his name.

0 Read more: National, Politics, Education, No Child Left Behind, Schools Fail No Child Left Behind, Half Schools Fail Federal Standards, Federal Education Standards, Failing Schools, Adequate Yearly Progress, 48 Percent of Schools Fail Federal Standards, 48 Percent of Schools Fail Adequate Yearly Progress, Federal Education Standards Defective, No Child Left Behind Defective

ATLANTA — Nearly half of America’s public schools didn’t meet federal achievement standards this year, marking the largest failure rate since the much-criticized No Child Left Behind Law took effect a decade ago, according to a national report released Thursday.

The Center on Education Policy report shows more than 43,000 schools — or 48 percent — did not make “adequate yearly progress” this year. The failure rates range from a low of 11 percent in Wisconsin to a high of 89 percent in Florida.

The findings are far below the 82 percent failure rate that Education Secretary Arne Duncan predicted earlier this year but still indicate an alarming trend that Duncan hopes to address by granting states relief from the federal law. The law requires states to have every student performing at grade level in math and reading by 2014, which most educators agree is an impossible goal.

“Whether it’s 50 percent, 80 percent or 100 percent of schools being incorrectly labeled as failing, one thing is clear: No Child Left Behind is broken,” Duncan said in a statement Wednesday. “That’s why we’re moving forward with giving states flexibility from the law in exchange for reforms that protect children and drive student success.”

State’s scores varied wildly. For example, in Georgia, 27 percent of schools did not meet targets, compared to 81 percent in Massachusetts and 16 percent in Kansas.

That’s because some states have harder tests or have high numbers of immigrant and low-income children, center officials said. It’s also because the law requires states to raise the bar each year for how many children must pass the test, and some states put off the largest increase until this year to avoid sanctions.

The numbers indicate what federal officials have been saying for more than a year — that the law, which is four years overdue for a rewrite, is “too crude a measure” to accurately depict what’s happening in schools, said Jack Jennings, president of the Washington, D.C.-based center. An overhaul of the law has become mired in the partisan atmosphere in Congress, with lawmakers disagreeing over how to fix it.

“No Child Left Behind is defective,” Jennings told The Associated Press. “It needs to be changed. If Congress can’t do it, then the administration is right to move ahead with waivers.”

Waivers fix the immediate problem but likely will make it much more difficult for parents to understand how schools are rated because progress will no longer be based on just one test score.

Under the 11 waivers already filed, states are asking to use a variety of factors to determine whether they pass muster and to choose how schools will be punished if they don’t improve.

Those factors range from including college-entrance exam scores to adding the performance of students on Advanced Placement tests.

At least 39 states, plus Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico, have said they will file waivers, though it is unclear how many will get approved.

Republicans in Congress say Duncan and President Barack Obama are using the waivers to push a “backdoor education agenda” that will ultimately let schools off the hook.

“The law needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed in Congress and not by executive action,” House education committee Chairman John Kline, a Republican from Minnesota, said in September after Obama announced the waivers.

Under No Child Left Behind, states that have tough standards are punished and schools that make progress but don’t hit benchmarks get treated the same as schools that see performance dip, Jennings said.

“A lot of educators saw the weaknesses in No Child Left Behind even when it was rolled out — that this day and time would come,” said Georgia schools Superintendent John Barge. “It’s kind of a train wreck that we all see happening.”

Follow Dorie Turner on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/dorieturner .

Heart Magazine magazine named New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez  Woman of the Year for her dedication to childrens advocacy and her efforts to keep children safe and today she lived up to her reputation as she signed into law HB 172  - a law prohibiting corporal punishment as a disciplinary sanction in public schools. 
Earlier this month Martinez signed an Anti-Bullying Bill into law and HB172 will further increase protections for New Mexico school children. 
We spoke with renown Author and Educator Rosalind Wiseman, who recently hosted a bullying discussion from the White House, who had this to say:

Any school that condones or doesn’t explicitly condemn corporal punishment as a disciplinary strategy will have no credibility to talk to its students about bullying. Simply, if the students know the adults in the school can hit, slap them or worse, it sends the message that physical domination is how you address conflict. I honestly, can’t think of a worse policy to alienate our children.

New Mexico is now the 31st state to outlaw corporal punishment in public schools. The United States is one of the only developed countries in the world that allows Corporal Punishment in schools – with 107 countries having national bans in place.

For many high school students, school is a series of lectures taking place in various classrooms on campus. After school, students muddle through homework and the cycle repeats. Salman Khan, founder of Khan Academy, saw the need to question the fundamental practices of the education system. Why are students being lectured in the classroom and doing the real work of learning in their homework? According to an article in The Bangor Daily News, Khan Academy offers teachers a series of videos and lectures for the students to watch as homework assignments which allows class time to be used for questions, problem solving, and unique projects.

According to the article, Salman Khan began his video series to tutor his younger cousins. These videos led Khan to found the Khan Academy which now has several thousand video lessons in math and science. Khan Academy has garnered praise from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for its innovative application of technology in the field of education. Both the Gates Foundation and Google have contributed sizable amounts of funding to support Khan’s vision for the virtual school. While some critics have said Khan is degrading teachers, Khan maintains that his academy gives teachers a wider range of tools and helps them engage their students better in the classrom.

You can read more at The Bangor Daily News.