The weight goal, the drink goal, the money goal, the big life goal, and when it's more than a wish

Most Januaries hold a handful of the same wishes, and some of them need a word more than the rule.

The weight goal. This is the most common resolution in both studies in chapter 4, and it's the one where the wish does most damage, because a number on a scale is a picture and the Tuesday is a meal. Two earlier books in this series, Eat when you're hungry and Breakfast isn't the problem, take the diet cycle apart in full, and their argument is close to this one. The rule is the same. A Tuesday sentence about one meal or one walk, not a number for June. The NHS Better Health pages on losing weight are plain and free and say that eating habits, sleep, activity and how you feel all play a part, which is a list of Tuesdays, not a number.

The drink goal. "Drink less" is an avoidance goal, and Oscarsson found approach goals did better, so write the sentence as a thing you'll do, the alcohol-free days named, the drink you'll have instead named. The earlier book The drink didn't do that covers the habit itself. And if stopping or cutting down makes you shake, sweat or feel sick, that's a reason to see a GP before going further, because withdrawal from heavy drinking can be dangerous and needs medical advice. No sentence in this book replaces that.

The money goal. "Sort the money" is a wish. The sentence is one statement opened on one day, or one standing order set up on payday, and two earlier books in this series, Open the envelope and Pay yourself on payday, are about those two Tuesdays. If the money is debt you can't pay, the charities named in those books give free advice, and the Tuesday sentence is a phone call.

The big life goal. Change career, move, leave, start the business. These aren't wishes in the way "get fit" is. They're decisions, and the trouble is usually not the Tuesday but the deciding. Pick one, from this series, is the book for that. Once the decision is made, though, it turns into Tuesdays like everything else, an application sent, a course booked, a conversation had, and the sentence works on those.

When it's more than a wish. If the wish has been "be happier" or "feel like myself again" for several Januaries, and you've felt low most of the day, most days, for two weeks or more, the NHS says to see a GP. That's not a resolution and it isn't a plan you can write for a Tuesday. It's a conversation, and it's the one thing on the list that should come before the sentence, not after it.