EFL Lesson Plan –How to stick to new year resolutions
Exercise 1.
Work in pairs and answer these questions:
–
Why do people fail in meeting their resolutions?
–
What's the percentage) of people who fail in keeping their resolution?
–
What do you think micro resolution is?
–
Why is making small changes in our behaviour better than setting ourselves 'big'
resolutions'?
Exercise 2.
Watch the video again and find the answers to these questions:
1. Who's Caroline Arnold?
2. What's the first rule that helps you stick to resolution and how to implement it?
3. Why did Mrs. Arnold decide to write the book?
4. How did she start her first micro resolution?
5. What does the writer mean by establishing a pattern in our mind.
Exercise 3.
Here are the sentences that you've heard in the video. Watch the video again, put the words in
the correct order and match them with the speaker.
1. TV Presenter (Man)
a. different / something / explicitly / Instead / pledging / of /
different. / be / to / do / to / pledge / you
2. TV Presenter
b. tackle. / We / you / bet / to / like / 've / some / got / New
(Woman)
Year's/ you'd / resolutions
3. Caroline Arnold
c. She / nail / has / up / come / down / the resolutions / get /
and / right / them / time. / the / first / a system / with / to / you /
help / refocus / can / so / you / that
Exercise 4
Here are 9 failures people do that stop them from achieving their resolutions. In pair discuss
each sentence and think about the reasons it's considered to be a mistake, if possible give
examples.
1. The first mistake is that we don't write our resolutions down.
2. The second one is that we create too many goals.
3. The third mistake is that we only focus on one area of our lives.
4. The next mistake is that we don't make our resolutions specific.
5. The fifth mistake is that we don't make our resolutions measurable.
6. The fact that we don't assign a due date is the sixth mistake.
7. The seventh reason we fail when setting resolutions is that we don't keep them visible.
8. We don't get out of our comfort zone – is the eighth mistake.
9. The final mistake is that we don't make the resolutions compelling.
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Exercise 5
Match the paragraphs with the heading 1-9 in Exercise 4.
It's this time of year where we start reflecting on the
past year and kind of evaluate how far we've come
and the goals we've accomplished. It's also the time
when we set out with new, great goals, and inevitably
we failed at a few of them, 25 percent of people
abandon their New Years resolutions after one week.
So how to make and keep to our New Year's
resolutions. Here are 9 mistakes people do that stop
them from achieving their resolutions:
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This is important because if the goal doesn't stimulate
you, you're not going to put he effort in to accomplish
it. Compelling goals are spiritually meaningful,
intellectually stimulating, emotionally, energizing, or
physically challenging. Resolutions that don't motivate
you, that are just set out of a sense of duty will be
quickly forgotten.
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A study done by psychologist Dr. Gail Mathews at
Dominican University of California showed that 42
percent of students who had written their resolutions
were more likely to achieve them. So next time you're
saying your goal out loud or to your friend, make sure
you write it down too.
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It's very common for us to have goals related to our
carers. However, if you're going to be fully expressed
as a human being, if you're going to become all that
you were created to be, you have to set goals in the
other areas of your life. Your health, for example, your
spiritual life, your marriage, your involvement in the
community, career goals. All of those different slices of
the pie have to be addressed if you're going to
experience happiness and meaning in your 'new life'.
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Sometimes we decide we're going to change our lives,
we're going to get really serious about resolution
setting, and we set 20, 25, or even 30 different
resolutions in all of these different areas. That's simply
too many. According to an old Chinese proverb "Man
who chases two rabbits catches neither." Ideally set
yourself 7-10 goals in total.
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We create the goals, we lose them in our computers,
we lose them in our desk drawers, and we just don't
keep them visible. If you don't keep them visible,
you're going to forget about them because life has a
way of coming at you faster than you can process, and
you get sidetracked. You soon lose focus on what you
created by Emily Kruszewska © 20I5
said at the beginning of the year mattered most.
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We often say "I want to write a book" or, "I want
to study more" or, "I want to learn a new
language". That's a good intention, but hat's not
specific enough. You might have a goal called " I
want to read more books." But that's not really a
goal; it's a dream. But if you say, "I want to read
10 books this year" that's the kind of specificity
we're looking for. Or you could say, "I want to
learn photography." That's to general. But to say,
"I want to complete the Karl Taylor Photography
Masterclass course…" That's the kind of
specificity we need. This actually gives you some
kind of parameters to move forward.
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You have to have a date by which you're going to
accomplish that goal. "I'm going to lose 35
pounds by 1st July " There are a lot of benefits of
deadlines, if we put a deadline on something,
then suddenly we're accountable for it.
Sometimes, you may think there's a part of you
that doesn't want to put a deadline on it, because
you can't foretell what's going to happen next
month or week. There are three main benefits of
deadlines, precisely they create a sense of
urgency, balance your workload and help you
prioritize your daily tasks.
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What gets measured gets improved, and to be
able to measure it is partly an aspect of
specificity, but let me give you an example. If
you say, "I want to earn more money”
Well,
how much more money? If you said, "I want to
convince my boss to give me a 10 percent raise
this year" that would have been a measurable
goal. So you want it to be something you can
measure,
something
that's
quantifiable,
something that makes you able to know when
you've crossed the finish line.
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If the number of things you can do without
feeling anxious are few—you’ll either be anxious
a lot of the time or miss out on a lot of the
excitement life has to offer. Change your frame of
mind. View your comfort zone not as a shelter
but a prison. Don’t take the safe, known path
instead choose challenge over comfort, and set
goals that force you to get out of your comfort
zone.
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