Don’t get sucked in — why New Years resolutions never worked for me
New Year’s resolutions are always on everyone’s minds at this time of year. You’ll probably be bombarded with messages from both media and friends – why not use this arbitrary date of the 1st January as an opportunity to refresh everything. It’s the perfect opportunity right? A new start, a new beginning – a chance to re-invent yourself, why wouldn’t you take advantage of this?
Like us all, I’ve got a number of things that I want to focus on – whether that’s my own health and fitness or looking at my career and the direction that I’m heading. I’ve found in the past that I’ll start with a number of items on my resolution list — many arbitrarily chosen and most without a definite sense of when I’ll have achieved them. It’s rare that I actually sit down and think about these things in depth. It’s even rarer that I remember what any of them are post January.
This year, I’m going to do things differently.
Embrace habits
You may have heard that it takes approximately 21 days to form a habit — this is based on observations made by Maxwell Maltz. However, did you also know that this figure has been widely debunked and that in actual fact, it has been shown to take approximately two months in order to make a habit stick. It’s not really surprising is it, looking back, that all those years of setting ourselves multiple resolutions, we’re failing and then to add insult to injury, we beat ourselves up about not making it.
Layer
Rather than start everything at once, I’ll be introducing changes gradually over a period of time. This gives chance for each habit to be reinforced and to become second nature. Let’s say in February I’ve got to the stage where I’ve really embraced my first habit — to the extent that it’s now automatic. Great! That’s exactly where I wanted to be — and it also allows me to move on to the next thing that I had on my list. Of course there will be quick wins which don’t need a habit to be formed and I can make sure to sprinkle these about whilst working on the larger items.
Set targets
I know from experience that if I set myself a generic target (I.e. get fit), there’s little impetus for me to do it- I thrive on having a target to aim for and then training to meet that target. What I’ve done this year is for each of my items to work on, have an easily measurable target which I can keep track of and which I can understand if I’m on track to ultimately meet it. In the example of getting fitter, maybe it’s my weight or fat percentage. If I had another target such as reading more, it could be to put 30 minutes aside each day to read.
I’m also not having any New Years resolutions. Resolutions are such a loaded term and to start with, they put you under (normally unhelpful) pressure to meet them. I have things in my life which I would like to change — and I shouldn’t need the start of the year to justify starting on these.
So, I will be following the above principles and rather than reaching too far, focus on one thing at a time. Lots of small steps go towards making a long journey — and I hope that those small steps will enable me to meet the targets I’ve set myself.