Resolving the New Year
Welcome to 2021 where things are still just as weird as they were last year. The only difference is that we are older therefor wiser. Right?
I have a hard time sticking to my new years resolution (as many of us do) There is a statistic that says 50% of adults set new years resolutions and just under 10% actually stick to them. I wanted to give you some tips and tricks I’ve read, learned, and applied that have kept me disciplined enough to stick to resolutions in the past.
Here is an overview:
1. SMART Goals
2. Visualizing your steps
3. Habit tracking
So to start off I want to explain what a resolution IS and what a resolution ISN’T and in order to do that I will explain SMART Goals—no i’m not just capitalizing the word smart, it’s an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Assignable, Relevant, and Time-Based goals. The problem most people have with their resolutions is that they throw out an ‘idea’ they have of something they want to do or be better at in the new year without really digger a bit deeper into their goals.
I.E. “I want to eat healthier”
SMART goal: “I want to eat a plant-based diet at least 3 days a week for an entire year”
See the difference? One is vague and hard to gauge and the other is fairly specific to exactly how your goal will be met and measured. Our brains like organization. They thrive on the idea that you know exactly what you want—and they will comply by helping you reach your goals. Try to be as specific as possible.
Next is visualizing your goals. If you can see it, you can believe it. When you think about your resolution, it must be something that you can actually visualize yourself do/becoming—otherwise you just…won’t do it. A practice I like to call upon is visualizing yourself at the finish line of whatever goal you have set.
- Sit in a comfortable place
- Imagine yourself as engulfed in this goal-reality-place as much as you can
- Then write down ALL the steps that it took to get there (It’s okay if you don’t know all of them, I am sure you know some, start there!)
When you can picture yourself ALREADY in the place you want to be in, it’s a lot easier to imagine yourself actually reaching your goals. The main reason people fail at reaching their goals is because they don’t break their goal into next action items. Think of your goal as a big pizza. If you try to eat the pizza all at once you’re going to have a hard time knowing where to start. When you break it down into slices it becomes much easier to eat one at a time.
Lastly, habit tracking. Habit tracking is have a bit of a fifteen minutes of fame moment right now. I have seen countless celebrities boasting about it, it’s being incorporated into apps, journals, and so on. Habit tracking is…just as it sounds, a way to measure that you kept your habit over a period of time. This could be a sticker chart, an excel spreadsheet with x’s in it, a calendar that you check off days on, an app like Habit Tracker, HabitNow, or Habitude.
These habit trackers help you see how far you have come. A person favorite of mine is from Jerry Seinfeld. It’s called “Don’t Break the Chain” The theory is that our goals have a certain level of…inertia. Once an object is in motion it stays in motion. You start off by making a chain on day one, then day two, then so on (or coloring in a circle each day) and because your goal is rolling, it’s harder to break the chain—in turn moving your resolution further.
Here is a link to Jerry Seinfeld’s “Don’t Break the Chain”
I hope this helps you reach your goals in the new year!
Speaking of reaching your goals in the new year— we are offering all new students who sign up for our intro special this month the ability to gain access to our video library. This means you get virtual yoga, in-person yoga, AND our video library all in one!
You can check it out here: Sign up for the New Student Special!
