New Year, New Me (or You)

I gained a lot of weight over the past few months, and I weigh more than ever before. All my clothes are tight—which isn’t funny. But it is pretty funny when my kids pat or rub on my belly. Seriously, it is time to lose some of this weight. I have started dieting and exercising more frequently. I don’t have a problem exercising, but I suck at dieting. I know that I am not the only one in this boat. Why is it so hard? I need to eat better foods and less of them, but it is so difficult.

Early last year I was in the best shape of my life. I wasn’t dieting or trying to lose weight. I was eating a healthy diet and exercising like a beast. It was different because I was focused on completing an ultramarathon. My goal was training for the ultra and not losing a certain number of pounds. In turn, I was eating right and exercising.

I believe business leaders face this same issue when trying to fight fraud. Most have good intentions and want to stop fraud, but they don’t or can’t stay the course. The following are difficulties I face when dieting that others may face when trying to fight fraud:

• Commitment is the first challenge. This can range from making the decision to quit smoking, studying for the CPA exam, losing weight, or fighting fraud. If there isn’t 100% buy in, then any efforts will become futile.
• Lack of discipline is huge. It is so easy to rationalize small decisions today that have bigger consequences in the future. This can be putting off reviewing the bank statement or ordering a burger instead of a salad at lunch. These little decisions are easier to make each time, but the impact becomes larger and larger each time we make them.
• The goal seems unattainable. The goals could be “lose 20 pounds” or “fight fraud.” They both make sense and seem reasonable at first, but it can be difficult to break them down into smaller achievable goals. Of course, some people are better at it than others. Losing 20 pounds is difficult for me, which helps me understand why the broad goal of fighting fraud may be difficult for others.
• Results may be longer-term. It takes time to see results, which is discouraging. So discouraging in fact that it is easier to just give up than to continue trying if it seems your efforts are not working.

I didn’t list all these challenges to discourage you. You must be aware of these challenges to identify ways to overcome them. As an example, I plan to trick myself into losing weight. I will change my goal from losing weight to training for a race. I will sign up for a race, set goals that will challenge me to train for the race, and run the race. This will change everything. I will need to always have a race on the calendar, which will keep me training for something.

With regard to fraud, I usually challenge people to “fight fraud.” This isn’t much of a goal, and people can fall prey to the challenges mentioned above. I may change this slightly and challenge people to enhance their profitability by increasing revenue or reducing spending. If someone sets a goal related to revenues, spending, or profitability, then people may be more willing to accept fighting fraud as a way to reach this new goal.

I need to go find a race and sign up so I don’t have to buy all new clothes.

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