It’s a new year, and that always means new goals and intentions. And no matter how hard we try, we always come out guns blazing ready to change everything about our lives overnight. Which unfortunately, never happens. What does happen is that we get totally overwhelmed, fall off and decide to not do anything at all. This year, let’s make it different. Let’s make it a goal to create good habits and achieve your resolution this year!
there is an incredible book that I have to recommend to all of you. I ready it last year, and decided to read it again to start the year off! It’s called Atomic Habits by James Clear.
If you don’t want to read the book, let me give you a few tidbits on habit creating that you can take with you and start implementing now!
Tip number one – make your habit easy. The easier you make things on yourself, the easier it is going to be to stick to it! If your new habit or goal is exercising, then pack your workout bag the day before. If you want to workout in the morning, then lay your clothes out the night before. Take it a step further and get a gym membership that is on your route to work so you don’t have to go out of your way to workout.
If your new habit is eating more vegetables – clean, and cut them up right when you get home from the grocery store. Make them visible in the front of the fridge so they are easier to see and grab for a snack.
Maybe you want to start journaling every day. Take the time to set your journal out on your desk where you will see it every morning. Add it onto something you already do so it sticks – after you make coffee you journal for 5 minutes. Or after you take a shower and towel off, you write in your journal for a few minutes.
Anything you can do to make the new habit effortless for yourself is the first step. Whatever extra steps you can eliminate is going to be ideal for adherence.
In order to make a habit attractive, you have to bundle it with something you already enjoy! Maybe you really love listening to audiobooks and you really need to start exercising more. Then you can create the habit by only allowing yourself to listen to audiobooks when you are exercising!
Maybe you really love your morning coffee, and want to start a gratitude practice. You can do create an attractive habit by only drinking your coffee during or after your morning gratitude. This will create a habit by doing something you enjoy with what you want to make into a new habit!
The 2 minute rule is also a very attractive habit creator! The rule follows the idea that your new habit should take less than 2 minutes. So instead of focusing on a 20 minute workout, focus on just pressing play on your video (like the Endorphitness Collective videos – shameless plug here, haha)! Or maybe you want to start running, instead of focusing on the mile you have to get yourself to go do, just focus on tying your shoes. These tasks are simple and easy – and they will teach you to at least start. Once you start, you likely aren’t going to stop in the middle of the video or only run a quarter of a mile.
Some of these tips may sound simple and way too obvious, but that’s the point. We aren’t trying to move mountains or change the world overnight. We are simply just trying to create a better us with incremental changes!
Attainable habits need to be both attainable in the long run (like, don’t try to make a million dollars overnight because we know that isn’t possible) and also attainable to stick to! If you give yourself 17 things to change and you try to just cold turkey stop all bad habits…chance are, it’s not going to happen. So, start simple and basic.
The first idea of attainable habits is attainable in the long run. Set a goal that you seriously know you can achieve, and this doesn’t mean what you wish* you could achieve. We all wish* we could workout 6 days a week, eat healthy 100% of the time, get 8 hours of sleep and hangout with our friends. But…that isn’t attainable in todays world. So set yourself a goal you can hit. Maybe its 1 specific fitness goal, or 1 specific nutrition goal. You want to stop drinking soda…great. If you currently drink 3 per day – stopping cold turkey “I am going to stop all soda” is likely not going to stick for long. If you switch it and instead dwindle it down and start with 2 a day, 1 a day, 1 every other day, and then none it is likely going to be easier to attain, and then maintain!
Another great way to make habits attainable is to make them part of a routine. Whether it is something you already do, or something you are trying to start doing….do it the same every time! If you want to start working out – instead of saying “I will workout 5 days a week” get specific “I will workout Monday-Friday at 6a at ___ gym on my way to work”. That is something that is doable! By making a specific plan and action you are making it easier to achieve!
Let’s create goals for 2020 that we can actually achieve and we are excited to work towards! Be specific, make ti attainable (but also a little scary) and GO FOR IT, SISTER!
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