It’s that time of year. Health kicks, resolutions and new leafs. For some there’s a sense of hope. Or urgency. Or desperation. For others it’s apathy. They’ve failed so many times before they won’t even bother setting aspirations for the New Year.
The reason failure is almost a given with New Year’s resolutions is because we’re doing it wrong. Very wrong. …And I’m writing from experience.
Today I want to share 3 quick tips on how to make this year different.
1. Adopt a strategy (based on habits)
The mistake I see people make (and I’ve made in the past) is to set the goal and leave it there. We don’t take the time to consider how we’re going to get it done. We know the destination but not the path.
The path to our outcome is formed by our habits – the little things we do repeatedly. If we make our desired behaviour a habit, it becomes much easier to maintain – even when motivation is flagging. How much motivation do you need to clean your teeth? If we don’t form the habit, you can guarantee we’ll stop when the January buzz wears off. Oh well, at least the gym will be quieter.
What’s your strategy?
- What do you need to do?
- What habits will you need to form?
- When will you perform these new habits?
- What happens when it gets hard? (It will get hard!)
In 2013, I had a goal of completing the first draft of my book. My strategy was to forge the habit of writing every day. The strategy of scheduling some writing time in my calendar helped me follow through.
2. Have a low barrier to entry
In other words, make it EASY to get started. You won’t always be as motivated as you are in January! Try too much and sooner or later it all falls apart.
For example, if you’ve never been a regular gym-goer, deciding to commit to 3 sessions a week in 2014 isn’t the smartest idea for most people. It’s a big jump. When, inevitably, you miss a session for whatever reason, the failure seems like a big deal. Getting back on track is hard. 3 sessions a week might seem like a giant beast lurking over you. It’s too much to tackle. So you won’t bother at all. Game over. Already.
If, on the other hand, your goal was to attend the gym for 5 minutes each week, it seems so small that you cannot fail. You might think that 5 minutes won’t get you results. You’d be right. But 5 minutes gets you in the door and there’ll likely be times when – since you’re there – you’ll feel like doing more than 5 minutes.
You create the habit of going to the gym. As you begin to feel better about yourself (and your success at maintaining your habit), you’ll find yourself building on it. And so the success grows.
Rather than decide to write 2000 words a day, my book-writing target was to write something every day. Sure, there were days when I literally wrote one sentence and walked away, but the low barrier to entry got me started. “I can write one sentence”, I thought. Many times, once I got started I wrote for an hour or more. And step-by-step, little-by-little, the book got done.
3. Record and remind
It’s easy to get fired up in January. But how many people remember their goal in May or October? Do you remember last year’s goals? If you forget what your goal is, you can pretty much forget about achieving it.
We’re also good at fooling ourselves when it comes to our behaviours. We might believe that we’ve been eating well or exercising 3 times a week or going to bed on time or whatever, but before we know it’s been 3 weeks since we’ve done anything and our habits have gradually slipped.
The trick is to check in daily. Not only does this help keep your goal – and habit – in mind, it also keeps you more accountable. You can see if you’ve actually been following through.
Make a spreadsheet or use a wall calendar or an app. Every day cross off whether or not you did your habit. String together enough small, daily actions and they can build up to some incredible results.
I recorded my daily writing habit and wrote on 25/31 days in March and 25/30 days in April last year. I wrote a huge chunk of the book in that time. When the habit began to slip in May, there was no hiding. I could see it and it acted as a reminder to recommit and get back on track. And the low barrier to entry made it much easier to do so.
BIG IDEA: We are motivated in January but ultimately run out of steam with our goals because:
- We don’t get clear on our strategy
- We try to do too much at once
- We forget about our goal once the buzz wears off
TAKEAWAY:
- Adopt a strategy based on habits.
- Make it easy for yourself to get started by having a low barrier to entry. Allow yourself to form the habit without worrying too much about the outcome.
- Record your new habit daily and watch those tiny steps add up over time.
ACTION STEP: Schedule some time to get clear on what you want and how you will achieve it.
Always Keep Reaching!
Mike
