Resolutions

Jan 04, 2022

You are now on day 4 of 2022 and therefore 4 days into any resolutions that you have set. You might say "oh but I didn't set any", however you are conditioned to feel the change in years, and "the bells" signify the finish of something and the start of something new, and you have no power not to feel the change.

You are surrounded by old and new in your life. Transitions happen all the time to you and around you. The finish of something helps us review what happened and the beginning of something brings us energy and hope. That's not the full range of emotion around each however it most certainly is a part of it.

Your current situation determines how much positivity you gain from the start of a new thing and you try to force it through by making up resolutions that sound good at the time however generally you know they will fail, the question is on what day you will declare it failed. To be fair, you have set yourself up to fail, so please don't feel bad about it. If anything, please feel the energy to make the change properly and with the chance of success.

I have spoken before about creating habits and this is the way you can make the changes you want and that stick. Even by doing the activity for 2 minutes a day creates the habit. If you wanted to get healthier by walking for instance, then the easiest way to do it is is to ensure that no matter the weather you walk for at least 2 minutes per day. The hardest part is getting ready for it, because you know that as soon as you are doing it then you will be happy doing it.

People fail because they break the habit. One day is okay but if you don't do it 2 days in a row then you are creating the habit of not doing it. I hope that makes sense. The jist is that you will create the habit, it's up to you whether that habit is doing the task or not doing the task.

Another way is to be accountable to someone or something. With New Year's resolutions you are accountable to the New Year. Signing up to run 1k a day in January makes you accountable. Having a machine that measures my sugar levels, makes me accountable. And that makes us very much more likely to create the habit. How many people doing the running in January completely stop on the 31st of January? They generally don't. They have created the habit and therefore they have changed their lifestyle.

Not making resolutions at the time of change, or not having a plan for moving forward has the benefit of not testing our abilities to succeed at making life better and therefore we have created a scenario where we cannot feel as if we failed. We do that a lot as there are too many things to be considered and we don't have the time or energy to sit and review, plan and act on everything and for some, anything.

And that's not healthy.

Homework

Pick one aspect of your life that you want to change. Especially if it was a resolution.

  1. Decide what habit you could do for 2 minutes each day that would help you achieve.

  2. Find out how you could create Accountability and engage with it.

Habit cheat sheets are include in the Extras section.

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