How to Make Sustainable Habit Changes for the New Year
With 2023 just a few days away, and after a month of enjoying holiday parties and dinners, we often have the inclination to make big changes for the new year. So we end up making resolutions like, “I’m going to start working out” or “I’m going to lose X amount of weight”, or some other big sweeping resolution. like, “I’m going to get in the best shape of my life.”
Although these resolutions come with good intentions, history has shown, that they don’t usually last very long and are often forgotten by the end of January or the beginning of February.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t make changes for the new year. You just have to do them in a different way to try and make it more sustainable so you keep up with it. This is where small habit changes come in.
Hear me out:
Even though it’s more exciting to make a big change and hope to see big results, the more changes you try and make at once, the less chance of success you have; because it’s too much change at the same time. Instead, break down the changes into smaller goals, small habit changes and work on one thing at a time. Your chance of success, increases drastically if you do that!
I’ll give you one example. Say your resolution for the new year is to get healthy. That’s a great goal to have, but it’s also very broad. Break it down into specific things you need to do, to “get healthy,” like:
– drink more water
– exercise more
– eat healthier
– get better sleep
All of these fall under the umbrella of getting healthy. Now, instead of tackling all of these at once, pick one to start with:
Drink more water
Once you’ve decided on the first habit you want to change, in this case, drink more water, now you have to figure out how to implement it. To be successful in habit change, you need to:
1. Make it easier for yourself
2. Pair it with a habit you already do.
For drinking water, to make it easier for yourself, fill up some water bottles and keep them in the rooms you frequent the most, like the kitchen, your bedroom, the car. Make it easy for yourself.
Then you can start pairing it with habits you already have, like:
1. When I make my coffee in the morning, while it’s brewing, I will drink water
2. When I go to brush my teeth, I will first drink some water
3.When I get in the car, I will take a sip of water.
Continue to make it easy for yourself to be successful in that habit. Once water has become a regular part of your life, then you can start working on the next habit and do the same thing.
If there is a specific habit change you would like to work on but you aren’t sure how to get started or how to make it easier for yourself, you can email me at workoutwithsalma@gmail.com and I am happy to help you get started with it.
If you liked this, you might also like:
5 Ways to Drink More Water
5 Things to Change This Year (Instead of making resolutions)
4 Ways to Get Healthy by Adding, Not Restricting