“You’re off to great places! Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting, So get on your way!” — Dr. Seuss
It is a new year and an opportunity for new beginnings. We often make new year’s resolutions that fall flat by January 31st. Here are practical tips to create new healthy habits in the new year. With these strategies you can carry your resolutions through to December 31st.
1. Commit to Thirty Days
Three to four weeks is all the time you need to make a habit automatic. If you can make it through the initial conditioning phase, it becomes much easier to sustain. A month is a good block of time to commit to a change since it easily fits in your calendar.
2. Make it Daily
Consistency is critical if you want to make a habit stick. If you want to start exercising, go to the gym every day for your first thirty days. Going a couple times a week will make it harder to form the habit. Activities you do once every few days are trickier to lock in as habits.
3. Start Simple
Don’t try to completely change your life in one day. It is easy to get over-motivated and take on too much. If you wanted to study two hours a day, first make the habit to go for thirty minutes and build on that.
4. Remind Yourself
Around two weeks into your commitment it can be easy to forget. Place reminders to execute your habit each day or you might miss a few days. If you miss time, it defeats the purpose of setting a habit to begin with.
5. Stay Consistent
The more consistent your habit the easier it will be to stick. If you want to start exercising, try going at the same time, to the same place for your thirty days. When cues like time of day, place and circumstances are the same in each case it is easier to stick.
Source: Life Hack
NEXT STEPS: Come back same time next week for more tips to rock it in 2023!
©Indigo Stone 2023