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I hope all your New Year's resolutions, if you have them, are coming along nicely. Most people make New Year's resolutions about health. For example, many people get new fitness club memberships in January. I have been a member of various gyms since I was 17. Each year I see many new faces in January, but stop seeing many of those new faces by February. By the time March comes along, there are just a few new faces that I continue to see. Drop off rate is high, as people have a tendency to go back to old habits.

Some people think all the effort to make a change is like a train. It takes more energy to get it going, than it does to maintain the momentum. However, many times this is not the case. Initially it can be very exciting to get the train going. Once it's going, the excitement drops off and it's just not fun to keep shoveling coal to keep chugging. When shoveling coal starts to seem like a lot of work, it's time to find a new way to make it easy again. Do that by transitioning from, what I call the excitement phase, to the interesting phase. Find a way to make shoveling coal interesting. If I had to shovel coal 12 hours a day to get what I wanted, I would probably start to learn all about coal and how to shovel it. Who discovered coal? What makes it burn? Who thought of using coal to make a train go? I could study Qigong or Taichi and learn how to move my body most effectively while shoveling. Or, I could shovel left handed instead of right handed. Maybe I could shovel with my feet. I could invent a new and improved shovel. I could even train for a coal shoveling marathon, etc. The great thing about the interesting phase is it never wears off. All you need to do is find ways to continually make what you are doing interesting to you.

Healthy wishes...Chuga, Chuga, Choo Chooooo,

Dr. Watson