A Journey of Behaviors
Of those who make a New Year’s resolution, after 1 week 75% are still successful in keeping it. After two weeks, it drops to 71%. After 1 month, the number drops again to 64%.
Why? Often times a resolution is something you think you should be doing rather than what you really want to be achieving.
Resolutions are usually about a destination vs. a journey of behaviors.
“I’m going to read 20 books this year”, “I should code for 100 days straight”, “I should exercise more”. The very nature in which that “should” is formed sets us up for failure right away. We want to go all-in rather than easing in. So how do you actually make them work and avoid that resolution crash? Here are the tips that work for me:
👉 It’s really about the journey of behaviors — avoid the “should” mentality. Who said you should? Why do you feel like you should? Achieving your goals is a process that takes time and patience. There will be days when you just don’t 👏 want 👏 to 👏. You’re allowed to take a break and cut yourself some slack, but it’s important to do a self-check-in once your break is over, either stick with the commitment or…
👉 Break it up into small chunks — and I mean really, really small. There’s nothing worse than saying I want to read 1 hour a day when you never read at all. Or exercising 5 days a week for 1 hour when you haven’t picked up a dumbbell in months. A small chunk would be reading for 10 minutes, maybe even 5 or working out 5 days a week for 10 minutes. GAIN MOMENTUM!
👉 Failure as a Strategy — beware of the “should”. On days that you might slip, realize you can get started again the next day. If you truly break up your goals into smaller tasks you can avoid the common resolution crash. Tiny steps are key and help you achieve your goals no matter your mood or state of mind.
👉 Commit. — No, really! Commit. Stay true to your word to yourself and be impeccable with your word. After 6 months, 46% of people who make a resolution are still successful in keeping it.
It’s time to turn resolutions into commitments. What’s your New Year commitment strategy?
