What NOT to do for your New Year's Resolutions
The dark truth of New Year’s resolutions? They have an embarrassingly low success rate. At only 8% of people actually achieving their resolutions, it’s time to take a step back and think, “Maybe we’re not doing this thing right.”
Setting up the habits to reach wellness goals is exactly what I do for clients on the daily, so I know some big keys to success—and I’ve also seen some big, common goal-setting mistakes.
Below, I’ve shared the top 5 mistakes I see people make when starting New Year’s Resolutions, and what you can do INSTEAD to set yourself up for success in this brand new decade!
MISTAKE #1: You don’t specify the daily habits that will get you to your big goal.
Resolutions are often an end goal, but what people lack is the roadmap that will get them there. That roadmap comes in the form of daily, actionable habits. What do you have to do every day or most days to get you to your goal? If your goal is weight-loss, maybe you start with establishing daily habits of drinking water instead of soda. When that becomes easy and automatic, you add a new habit to master. Setting these clear daily habits makes it really clear if you are on track towards your goal or not.
MISTAKE #2: You start WAY too big.
Now that you know you need to focus on the actionable habits that will get you to your bigger resolution, make sure those habits are achievable. People often go too big with habit shifts because they want results fast. And I get it, we’re used to being promised big results in a short time. But results that last don’t come quickly. Take into account where you are and slowly build up your habits to where you want to be. Successful resolutions require slowly mastering those small, achievable habit shifts.
MISTAKE #3: You plan to do something you dread doing.
If you hate doing whatever you’ve decided to do for your New Year’s Resolution, you won’t keep doing it, plain and simple. Harsh workout regimens and restrictive diets are extremely popular this time of year. Before you choose to pursue one, I urge you to ask yourself if it is something you can happily go through the whole year. If you can’t, any short-term results won’t last. If healthy eating and movement are your goal, find healthy foods that are enjoyable for you and find movement that you look forward to. The more positive your association with the action, the more likely you will keep going.
MISTAKE #4: Your environment stays the same.
You may be more influenced by your environmental cues than you realize. Like Pavlov’s dogs who salivate when they hear a bell ring, our bodies automatically respond to the sensory cues around us. If you want to stop or start a certain behavior, play around with your environment to favor that behavior. If you want to snack healthier, make healthy snacks really accessible. If you want to read more instead of watching TV, try moving to a different chair or different room away from the visual cue of the television. Want to stop mindlessly snacking? Try avoiding the environment you mindlessly snack, or remove the snacking food from that environment. Want a completely new nighttime routine? Change your bedding or even the furniture position in the room. Those new visual cues may attach to the new routine and encourage it as you move along, instead of old environmental cues holding you back. And if you ever happen to be moving, know that that is a PRIME TIME to form new habits because all your cues are new. Get creative with even tiny changes in your environment, especially with things you can name as your trigger for old, unwanted behaviors.
MISTAKE #5: You make the goal in January, and never revisit it.
A year is a long time and a lot will pop up to distract and challenge your new habits along the way. I highly recommend revisiting your resolutions every month so you can recommit to them, build upon them, or rewrite them if any of your goals aren’t serving you quite the way you thought. This is exactly what we plan in and do every month in The Teacher Wellness Academy! If you are mastering small habits as suggested above, this is a must-do to help you progress and stay on track towards a bigger goal.
I hope you found these tips helpful as you jump into a happy and healthy 2020! Please pass along this post to anyone wanting to start a successful wellness routine this year.
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