So 2013 is about to end and it's time to assess the past year. If you are like me, last year you made a lot of resolutions but forgot about or lost track of them by February 1st. For those of us in chronic pain, it's even harder to focus on goals.

You're not alone.

According to some studies, only 8 percent of those of us that make resolutions, achieve them.

Why?

We tend to make lofty resolutions. Each year we resolve to lose weight, to become more organized, to save more and spend less. While these goals don't seem particularly difficult, they can be due to their one common characteristic: they're too general.

Research shows that if you want your resolutions to succeed, you need to target your goals by being specific. So if you want to lose weight next year, figure out how you can best do it with a specific target such as, cutting out all high fat, empty calorie drinks. Still too general? The goal might be more attainable if you decide to limit your peppermint mocha treat to once a week.

For those of us in chronic pain, how do we make a resolution that will help us with our pain? What can we do that will relieve our back pain, our headaches, our muscle pain. Cutting out a coffee drink isn't going to do much for us.

There are things we can do.

We know that exercise can relieve some of our chronic pain. But because these exercises can momentarily increase our pain, we are reluctant to do them. As 2014 approaches, ask yourself if you can do one exercise one day a week. If you make it a positive goal that is limited in scope, it will be easier to accomplish. Five or ten minutes once a week is doable.

Those of us in chronic pain don't talk about our needs to our loved ones. Think about how you can communicate better about a specific hardship that you may have. Resolve to talk to at least one person in the coming year about this one difficulty caused by your chronic pain.

Because our pain is incessant, we tend to focus on it so that it grows and encompasses every moment making it hard to enjoy life and increases our stress. Make a New Year's Resolution to do some activity where you practice mindfulness. That is, you put aside your pain by focusing on something you thoroughly enjoy for a few minutes each week.

There is a line in one of my favorite movies, What About Bob, where the main character urges himself to do things by taking "baby steps." In the movie this line is played for laughs, but it's actually good advice. Each small step you take will help you attain your larger goal of managing your pain for a happier life.

Make 2014 the year where you start small for big results.

Tags: