If you want to lose weight, pay off your credit card, or get organized, you have a bigger decision to make.

Research shows that the average New Year’s Resolution fails within three weeks. That means that 21 days after the ball drops, the champagne is gone, and the streamers have all been swept away, your grand resolution to lose weight/pay off your debt/quit smoking is going to turn into a big disappointment.

Why do we fail at our New Year’s Resolutions year after year? Sure, there are a lucky (and determined) few who manage to stick to their goals, but most of us find ourselves wondering what went wrong. Many people think they need to set smaller goals, but what I’m about to tell you may contradict everything you’ve heard before.

Your New Year’s Resolutions aren’t big enough. Your goals aren’t big enough.

What I’ve found in working with people for over 20 years is not that their goals need to be scaled back, but that they don’t want enough. They haven’t thought about why they want what they want¾why they want to lose weight or quit smoking. They haven’t identified a bigger purpose and meaning within their goals, so they are running on sheer will power and are, at best, only successful in a few areas.

More than just setting goals.

It’s a revolutionary concept: if you identify what you really, truly want from your New Year’s Resolution, you’ll find that reaching smaller goals is very do-able, almost natural. Your resolution has to be more than just setting goals for the next year. It has to be a decision about what matters to you and what you really want from life. I call it the One Decision. A One Decision is a very personal choice about who you are and what you care about. The One Decision gives you a reason to go through what it takes to not only achieve your goals, but also to change your life.

If Lance can do it, so can you.

Lance Armstrong, seven-time Tour de France champion, didn’t just set a goal to win the Tour de France. He made a bigger commitment about living strong, and that is what gave him the courage and strength to keep winning. That’s a One Decision.

You may be thinking, “ But I don’t want to win the Tour de France! I just want to fit into my jeans!” The power of the One Decision is that once you make it, you will not only achieve the goals in front of you, but also you will expand your vision to encompass much bigger and more far-reaching goals.

Losing weight by loving yourself.

Carrie had tried every diet imaginable—no sugar, no fat, no salt, no wheat, no “white things;” the blood type and body type diets, high fiber diets, liquid diets, and special food diets. She’s been on cabbage broth diets, egg diets, celery diets, tuna diets, cottage cheese diets, and even grapefruit diets. In the past 40 years, Carrie has gained and lost enough pounds to equal her total body weight (and probably yours too!). Needless to say, simply resolving to lose weight never worked for her.

Then Carrie made her One Decision—she decided to “love herself beyond measure as a unique gift of God’s love.” From making that decision, she is beginning to treat her body very differently. When she gets hungry, Carrie asks herself, “What would you feed someone you really loved?” By default she started getting more exercise, deciding that she’s worth the extra attention it takes to really take care of herself. Carrie has accepted that she won’t be thin overnight—but by making this larger commitment she’s already lost over 20 pounds that won’t be coming back.

This New Year’s, you have the opportunity to not only achieve some goals, but also change your life for the better. Forever.

What

Judith Wright—best-selling author, educator, consultant, and lifestyles expert—has appeared on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox & Friends and over 300 other radio and TV programs. Her new book, The One Decision (Tarcher, 12/29/05), is endorsed by Stephen Covey, Ken Blanchard, Tom Peters, and many others. Visit Judith Wright at www.judithwright.com.

About The Author

Judith Wright (www.judithwright.com) is hailed as a peerless educator, world-class coach, lifestyles expert, inspirational speaker, best-selling author, and corporate consultant. In her first book, There Must Be MORE Than This: Finding More Life, Love, and Meaning by Overcoming Your Soft Addictions, she examines how Soft Addictions often get in the way of a more fulfilling life. In her new book, The One Decision, she shows readers what a fulfilling life of MORE really is, and how making the decision to live a life of MORE changes what we do, how we think, and what we feel.

Judith’s life has been dedicated to exploring optimum ways of living and being. After receiving her BA in psychology and her MA in education and counseling, Judith rose to national prominence in her first career in academia where she designed cutting-edge programs to help adults with disabilities attend college and modeled nationally recognized programs to support children with disabilities and their families. A trailblazer in human development, she has since been revolutionizing the personal growth industry, founding SOFIA (Society of Femininity in Action), a cutting-edge woman’s organization and co-founding the Wright Institute in Chicago with her husband Bob, where they help individuals, couples, families, and corporations get more out of everything they do—more meaning, fulfillment, and success in relationships, career, parenting, and all the areas of their lives.

Called “one of the most sought-after self-help gurus in the country” by the San Francisco Chronicle, Judith demystifies what it takes to lead a great life as she teaches proven, time-tested perspectives on how to have it all through her writing, teaching, coaching and public speaking. A media favorite, Judith has appeared on over 300 radio stations and 30 television shows, including Oprah, Good Morning America, The Today Show, and Fox & Friends. Magazines and newspapers across the country feature her work, including Marie Claire, Fitness Magazine, Health, Better Homes and Gardens, Shape, The New York Daily News, The Chicago Tribune, The Boston Herald, and The Detroit Free Press.

Judith is a sought-after speaker and expert in areas like relationships, creative conflict, work productivity, wellness and lifestyle, women’s training and development, spirituality, and more. She has been a keynote speaker for many events, conferences and corporations, including Miss USA Symposium, Association of Junior Leagues International, McDonalds, Bank One, AC Nielsen, and the Association of Humanistic Psychology. Judith has the rare ability to touch audiences of all different types and sizes, communicating her messages with great passion that inspires audiences.

Judith and her husband, Bob, are the founders and directors of the Wright Institute in Chicago (www.wrightliving.com), where every day they inspire and teach others to live lives of MORE by making their One Decision. Judith and Bob live, love, work, and play near the Institute in Chicago, and at their conference and training center in Elkhorn, Wisconsin.