We all like to start off the new year with our best foot forward and this usually begins with new year resolutions. The problem is that 80% of these resolutions fail within 2 months of the clock ticking over to the 1st of January.
You may look at that figure and assume that 20% are actually fulfilled. Unfortunately, that is not the case, less than 10% of new year resolutions are achieved.
So why do so many fail?
Well, we simply make it too difficult for ourselves to achieve the resolutions. Many make long lists of things to do or resolve. It can become too overwhelming to meet our own expectations.
You might list 10 things to resolve over the year and you get three months in and haven’t knocked even one off the list and then doing the math you quickly realise that you may not get through them all, if any. Then we get caught up trying to do too much by playing catch-up, it’s around this time it all gets put into the “too hard basket”.
So, how do we avoid this and maximise our chances of kicking goals from the beginning of a new year??
- Start with something small, Like getting up 10 minutes earlier every morning and making the bed. Simple and easy. You’d be surprised what a difference that can make. Start the day by being productive. You now have a made bed to jump into.
- Break a habit. Start with one. Don’t try to quit smoking, quit alcohol and stop eating junk food all while trying to lose weight by going on a diet. Not going to end well. Studies have shown that breaking an old habit can take approximately 66 days. Trying to break multiple bad habits while learning new, healthier ones can be extremely difficult and daunting. Don’t set yourself up to fail.
- Create a routine. Without routine we kinda wing it through the day, week, month, year etc.. how can we be productive without routine? We can’t. Once a routine is created we can add things to that routine because it is easier to audit our time.
- Audit your time. Once we have a routine, auditing our time is the next most important thing. Finding the time to achieve the goals we have set. For example, you set your routine and in auditing your time you find that if you move a few things around there will be time free to hit the gym between 4pm and 5pm. Without the routine creation and time audit that hour would have been wasted.
- Don’t give up, or as we say at Schembri PT Don’t Back Down. This is probably the most important. Studies have shown it can take about three weeks for us to adapt to something new such as a diet or workout routine. If you can make it past that 21 day mark you give yourself a dramatically increased chance of success.
If you think we can help you achieve in 2020 let us know. Good luck with the year ahead.