What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of January? Cold, nasty weather, overspending on sales, minimal daylight? Maybe none of these, but for me it’s a massive flop! I’ll tell you the reason why… the good old New Year’s resolution, of which a massive percentage fail to see February’s dirt sludge!
This is the main time where we proudly lay out huge lists of all the massive changes we’re going to make because this is the year for us. Whether it’s plans to start eating less, exercising more, taking the kids to school, drinking fewer roses during sex, and going on the town, these plans are rarely modest in their ambitions.
So the goal of this post is to help you make it easier to get on with whatever beneficial new clothes you would like to introduce into your life.
So here are 6 top tips to ensure (or at least drastically increase) your chances of success.
1. Make sure it’s something you really want to do
Let’s face it, if you love eating Mars bars and the only reason you’re trying to give them up is because a co-worker annoys you, this reason probably won’t last the February slime test. Who knows, you might even end up throwing it away before that year’s TV Times issue.
So choose something that deep down you want to achieve because you know it will make you feel good and improve your life. If the idea of this new habit excites you, then there’s a good chance you’ll stick with it. If the idea of mother bothers you (eg, making your husband do the ironing every Sunday), then chances are she won’t do it.
2. Start small
The biggest change plans can often result in the biggest failures. This can often be attributed to the fact that, as with anything from a new pair of shoes to a new car, your enthusiasm levels decline rapidly over time.
what I suggest is to try a slightly reduced version of the new habit first. What this will do is give you the confidence that you are quite good at acquiring new habits and with this confidence you will be more likely to stick with your current habit.
Let’s say you want to start running 5k every Sunday, why not start running 2k every Sunday for one month, then 3k the next month and so on? Think of it like jumping off gradually higher bungees. The chances of filling your pants are drastically reduced this way.
3. Write it down
Due to our often hectic lifestyle, we often forget to do certain things, and anything that is out of our routine can be easier to let go of.
Writing it down has two benefits; the first is that it makes it more concrete, rather than just a few streams of energy inside your head. The second refers to what Napoleon Hill referred to in his seminal work The Laws of Success as autosuggestion. This is where something is constantly held within your thoughts until over time it basically stays there and becomes part of your thinking. He would have described it much more eloquently, but I’m sure you get the gist. So write it in big letters on the bulletin board in his kitchen for him to see every day while he goes about his business.
4. Make it public
We all know that it is part of human nature to want to avoid looking stupid in front of others! Probably the main reason most people would politely decline if asked to be a big brother, or why people stopped wearing fanny packs after 1990, so yeah, the idea of public humiliation is a deterrent strong enough for most people.
This can be used in a powerful way for our habit-forming purposes in that once you’ve laid out your best plans, you can go and tell a few people exactly what you’re going to do (or not do).
Now, once you’ve made this promise, you’ll feel compelled to keep it no matter how strong the urge to open another bottle of rose or unwrap that dairy milk bar becomes, as the consequences will be public humiliation from your friends. or who you have decided. tell.
So basically, if it’s something you really want to achieve, take a chance and tell a lot of people what you’re trying to do.
5. Apply the 21-day method
Now, while it’s far from withstanding scientific research, the 21-day method is a good number to start with. The idea behind this is that every time you do a new activity, new neural pathways are created in your brain.
The more you do the activity, the stronger those pathways become, so when it comes to weeding out negative habits, it’s often helpful to try and replace them with a more constructive one. For example, go for a walk whenever you have a craving for junk food.
Every time you do the new habit instead of the old one, the new one gets stronger and the old one gets weaker. Think of it like stepping on grass in a field, over time your path becomes very clear, but if you stop walking it will eventually grow.
Obviously, there are some seriously negative habits that are probably outside the scope of this post, but for everyday things, this method is very effective.
So there you have it, 6 top tips for getting started and sticking with any new outfit. If you get good at this system, think how envious all your contemporaries will be when you’re easily making changes all year long, not just while you’re drunk at the office Christmas party.