Great. Now is the time to establish these New Year’s resolutions.
As we enter a year and a new decade, your first step is to believe that you can do it.
While about 40 percent of Americans set resolutions around Jan. 1, between 40 percent and 44 percent will succeed in six months, Norcross said, reporting the results of multiple studies with col. leagues.
But if you believe in yourself, you are ten times more likely to change through a New Year’s resolution, compared to those who don’t resolve, when both groups have comparable goals and motivation, he reported.
Here’s how to get started with this year’s strongest foot.
Make it specific
“The easiest way to apply this strategy to your habits is to fill in this sentence: I’ll do it [BEHAVIOR] a [TIME] inside [LOCATION]”, writes Clear.
If you want to eat better, be specific: decide to add a fruit or vegetable to your lunch every day, limit fast food to once a week, or have dessert once a week.
Make it possible
Avoid resolutions that look fantastic but are unattainable. In fact, make them something you will enjoy. They can still be tough, but that doesn’t mean they have to make you miserable.
To eat better, place this fruit bowl right next to your lunch bag, so you grab an apple or orange every day. Do I hate apples? Do not pick apples. Choose a fruit that you will probably eat.
Do you want to meditate? Great. Rubin hates meditating, so he stopped doing it. It’s okay to experiment and stop doing things you don’t like. “Know who you are and who you are not,” he said.
Let yourself fail
Everyone is screwed. Expect to have occasional slips. But don’t let the exercise class or the Friday donut on the workplace occasionally get lost, Norcross tells you.
Most successful solvers slip in January, but 71% of successful solvers say their first safeguard strengthened their efforts through a combination of guilt, raising awareness of the seriousness of their problem and reminding them that they had to refine their plans, he said.
If you know you’re in a high-pressure situation, practice “no thanks” to your aunt’s apple pie in advance. Even people who don’t like apple pie sometimes still eat it when it’s offered just to be polite. Instead, practice saying “No, thank you.”
What if you slip? Focus on getting back on track, not slipping. “People who show more compassion for themselves are more likely to get back on the horse and try again,” Rubin said.
Get ready for success
Look at what they tell you: If you’re determined to spend less time on your phone, but pick it up as soon as you get up, put your phone in another room at night. Oh, it’s your alarm, you say? Buy an alarm clock. They now cost $ 6.
If you want to limit sweets, take them out of the house. Stay away from your work break room on Wednesday snacks (not that I’m speaking from personal experience on CNN).
Get to know yourself
Instead of asking you to consider your goals, Clear asks you to consider this process in two steps.
Decide what kind of person you want to be: a healthy person? A strong person? A writer? A musician?
Then prove it with small victories over time. Gym classes, weightlifting, writing, practice. Every time you do something towards the goal of who you want to be, tell yourself that you are becoming that person. (I did my Pilates in the morning before I started writing this piece. It’s part of my goal to be a healthy person.)
Make it public
If you are surrounded by supportive friends and family, making your goals public and asking for responsibilities can help. You can also join a friendly competition gym or a group like Weight Watchers.
The resolution guides I spoke with agreed to make their resolutions public: Norcross decided to stop doing multiple tasks in 2021 and he had already started practicing during our phone interview. (After I mentioned it, I thought I had his full attention.)
“I’m going to start at five minutes a day,” he said, crediting James Clear that he had started a daily “atomic habit” before trying any more.
Rubin will try to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every day in Manhattan, a few blocks from the museum.
While it seems like a high order, it’s also the topic of your next book, so it’s a huge motivation to explore and learn from your new job during the new year.
Show (do not explain) to your children
Parents can open the door to a conversation with their children about resolutions by talking about their own reflections and hopes for the new year. They may mention that it is difficult to achieve their own goals and that perfection is not the goal.
Parents can present the changes they want to make and model how they want to make those changes, Damour said. It’s important to raise it without criticizing, he said.
With children under the age of 10, parents can take the initiative in a debate about where family members have room to grow up, he said. Once your kids reach adolescence, don’t give them any idea, he added.
“Parents should work with the assumption that no developing teen normally wants to be told what to do,” Damour said. If the teenager quietly does the right thing and the parent suggests it, the children are likely to stop doing it.
“Most of how we target young people is modeling the behaviors we want,” he said. “If what you say and what doesn’t match, a teenager will notice and yell at you for your hypocrisy.”
Change it
Getting enough sleep didn’t go so well for a month, so he changed it. He wrote his own rules so that he could change them and therefore succeed. And you can too.