By Grace Barker
The start of the new year often invites in ideas for making massive changes or creating resolutions to improve your life. Despite this reinvigoration in making positive change, statistics show that an astonishing 88% of them fail to last more than 2 weeks into the new year.
But, why? It’s not that failure is inevitable or that you can’t achieve what you set out to do, but that change is difficult for everyone. Without the right structures and supports in place, it is far easier to go the path of least resistance, relying on old ways of living.
But here’s the good news. You are capable of change. You have the ability to build healthy habits that last through implementing supports and structures to help you. Leveraging small, sustainable shifts with a clear plan ensures that you can achieve any new habit you are looking to build, lasting well beyond the start of the new year.
3 practical ways to build healthy habits that last
1. Start small
2. Embrace progress over perfection
3. Be specific about your plan for success
1. Start Small
There is something about the start of a new year that inspires a complete revamping of life. Often, overarching concepts like ‘being healthier’, ‘starting a business’, or ‘spending more time with family’ are the starting points for casting a vision for the new year.
While this is a great start, it’s important to turn these concepts into small and measurable goals. Without those small milestone markers, the concept can feel overwhelming, leading you to feel discouraged or unaccomplished, and you may end up abandoning the change altogether.
2. Embracing progress over perfection
Just as it’s beneficial to celebrate small, daily progress, it’s also helpful to embrace progress over perfection. Anytime you’re starting new, there is a lot of learning and growth that must take place before you can achieve something with excellence. If you become too hyperfixated on something turning out perfectly, it can lead to discouragement and cause you to lose momentum toward your goals.
But, if you can give yourself grace as you try something new and continue to show up with consistency, greatness can be achieved over time. The ‘1% better’ philosophy emphasizes this compounding effect, which comes from showing up with consistency. Each day, you’re able to do a little bit more than you did the day before. This consistency of showing up also reinforces the idea in your mind that you are open to accepting change and willing to continue growing.
Ultimately, you can achieve major progress simply through regular repetition, making gains each day that add up over time.
3. Be specific about your plan for success
One surefire way to guarantee that you show up consistently is to have a plan and track your progress. ‘SMART goals’ are goals structured into objectives that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound—an approach that can help to make your goals more easily attainable.
From knowing the steps and resources needed to achieve your objectives to visually seeing progress toward the hypothetical ‘finish line’, the likelihood that your goals will be achieved greatly increases with structure.
For example, if your concept is to ‘Manage stress’ in the new year, the concept is positive change, but it lacks any structure to help you get there. But if your goal is ‘Manage stress in the next 3 months by attending yoga classes at the local studio 3 times per week’, it will be far easier to achieve your goal. Not only are you able to track your progress, but understanding that the yoga practice is a resource and you want to leverage it 3 times per week for the next 3 months gives you a clear plan to follow.
Remember, your plan doesn’t have to be drastic or complicated. It should be something realistic and attainable for you and your lifestyle. The more that you build healthy habits, the easier it will be to partake in the act of building additional healthy habits thanks to the concept of ‘1% better’.
Now, you’ll be well on your way to achieving any positive change you set out to accomplish.
Build healthy habits that last
As you head into this new year, you have the opportunity to build healthy habits that last. Through structure, consistency, and celebrating progress, you’ll be shocked by what you can accomplish over the next year. And building healthy habits gets easier with time. Consider everything you could accomplish in the next 5 years. What about 10 years? There are so many possibilities.
