Are Your Resolutions Failing Already?
Are Your Resolutions Failing Already?
For many of us, the promises that we made to ourselves just over a week ago are already
looking shaky. By the time we reach the end of this month, around 90% of us will have
quietly admitted that the idea of making resolutions in a new year is a good one but carrying
them out consistently just isn’t so easy. So if your new year resolutions are failing already what can you do?
Is there something that works better?
Whilst big goals – broken down into SMART targets – are good at work, a better way of
achieving lasting personal change is to adopt different habits and to make these habits as
small as possible.
Why?
- If you rely on motivation to change, you’ll find that it comes and goes. Established habits, on the other hand, tend to stick.
- Habits are rarely associated with identity; something that we can feel resistant to changing, even if we want to.
- Tiny habits, or micro-habits, are barely noticed by us but when consistently applied, can make a huge difference. Imagine changing something by just 1% per day. Compounded, that means a doubling of the desired result every 72 days.
- Habits are not usually associated with loss, which something that we are very averse to.
How?
- Pick three habits that you would like to adopt for the next three months (yes, a
- quarter of the year is so much easier to work with than a whole year).
- Envisage the smallest possible step that you would like to make; not more than a 1% improvement. Let’s say you want to get out of bed earlier and become an early riser – then set your alarm for one minute earlier each day for those three months. Or perhaps you want to move more, and you currently walk just 3,000 steps per day? You get the idea!
- After three months, you three new habits will be embedded but you will hardly have noticed.
- Then set three, new micro-habit changes for the next quarter.
- After a year, you will have 12 measurable improvements that you will be proud of.
Recommended Reading
- Atomic Habits by James Clear
- Black Box Thinking by Matthew Syed
- Winners: And How They Succeed by Alastair Campbell
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