At the beginning of every year, most people start to make their “New Year’s Resolutions” in the hopes of forming better habits that will improve their lives. Unfortunately, most people end up abandoning their pursuit well before the cold winter months transform to Spring. Here are three things that you need to have to ensure your resolutions become habits and not just another passing fancy.
1. Make Sure Your Life’s in Order
While there is a certain allure behind the idea “no better time than now” when it comes to forming good habits, unfortunately, your willpower is limited. The experts at Psychology Today recommend waiting to develop new habits until your life is somewhat in order. If you’re already stressed, trying to work on some other form of personal development can make it incredibly difficult for you to keep up with the good habit, which takes 21 days of constant attention for it to form.
2. Focus on a Single Good Habit at a Time
Forming good habits can be challenging. Habits are things that are deeply ingrained in our behavior, which is why it can be so challenging to quit a bad habit. Starting up a good habit can be just as difficult and is going to require you to put in a lot of hard work and conditioning before it becomes an automatic behavior. If you try to change too many things at once, you are only setting yourself up for failure. It’s best to focus on just one good habit at a time, even if it’s small, and move onto the others later on.
3. Gradually Work Yourself into It
You may have the goal of doing something every day, but it is highly unlikely that you are going to be able to reach that goal immediately. It is going to take willpower and time for you to condition yourself, so don’t get upset if you happen to miss a day in the beginning. You need to begin to ramp up the habit gradually if you want to be successful in forming a new habit.
To form new habits, you have to set goals for yourself. You can set a different goal each week to keep you motivated without getting overwhelmed. The more consistently you can stick with your new habit, the more you’ll want to keep going, and before you know it, you’ve changed your life for the better.
