By KEN CARPENTER
Great Bend Post
GREAT BEND — It's that time of year when many people are making New Year's resolutions to lose weight, exercise more or quit smoking. Dr. Patrick Stang with the Center for Counseling and Consultation in Great Bend has some advice on how to succeed at keeping those resolutions throughout the upcoming year.
"Make your resolutions or the changes you want to make gradual, not great big things all at once," Stang recommended. "Try to give yourself a little bit of a time limit. Okay, it's January. By March 1st, I want to have this part of it done. By March 1st, I want to have walked on my treadmill this many times. Or I won't be down to smoking half as many cigarettes by March 1st, whatever it is. Or I want to be more productive at work. Make it something that's measurable that you can tell when you're making some progress."
Dr. Stang was a guest Monday on 1590 KVGB and 95.5 FM's Out & About program. He says it's okay to mess up when you're trying to live up to your own expectations. But that doesn't mean you have to give up on your resolutions.
"People make some progress, and then they'll kind of not make progress for a while or go backwards a step or two. So kind of give yourself a break, and realize that not everything happens in a straight line. Don't beat yourself up. That's the way most things in life go."
The Center for Counseling and Consultation is a community mental health center serving Barton, Pawnee, Rice and Stafford counties and offers a wide variety of services to individuals and families.