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4 Steps To Make Your Habits Stick and Achieve Your New Year’s Goals

February 04, 2021

Making new year’s resolutions is an established component to modern life. Every year, everyone is reminded, by friends and the media, of the time-honored tradition. It’s an opportunity to take stock of ourselves, or lives, and our habits; an opportunity to establish a commitment to self-improvement.

Anyone who is keen on improving themselves and their life might pose the obvious question: “Why wait until the new year to initiate these positive changes?” It’s a rhetorical question, of course, one worthy of contemplation. But if we didn’t have this annual reminder, many people might never address the issue of personal development and self-improvement.

New year’s resolutions are not just a component to modern life. The tradition has been around a long time. Historians claim that the ancient Babylonians were the first culture to make annual, new year’s resolutions, 4000 years ago. They believed that if they kept their resolutions, the gods would look upon them more favorably. If not, they risked the wrath of the gods, a chilling proposition for an ancient Babylonian.

Common Resolutions

Researchers claim that the top ten new year’s resolutions for Americans are:

Exercise more
Lose weight
Get better organized
Initiate a new skill or hobby
Live life more fully
Save more and spend less money
Quit smoking (insert alternative destructive habit)
Spend more time with family and friends
Travel more
Read more books, watch less TV

Resolutions #1 and #2 are, of course, interrelated, with activity being an essential component to weight control. With two thirds of Americans being either overweight or obese, it’s logical that #1 and #2 would rise to the top of the list.

Regrettably, the percentage of people who need to lose weight doesn’t appear to change much from year to year, so the obvious conclusion is: people don’t tend to keep their resolutions, or at least they don’t keep #1 and #2.

Most People Fail at Their Resolutions

The first step in making new year’s resolutions is to write them down. This creates a level of manifestation, and manifestation is the name of the game. Until we act on our resolutions, they remain in the realm of thoughts and theory. Thoughts and theory are a good starting point, but if we don’t resist that extra donut, they are clearly not sufficient. What is required is action. If we don’t act on our resolutions, what’s the point?

According to a 2002 research study, published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, only 46% of the people who made new year’s resolutions, were able to follow through successfully. The other side of this coin tells us that the majority of those who make new year’s resolutions, fail.

The same study also looked at a population of people who did not make specific resolutions, but who did have a goal that they wanted to achieve in the new year. Surprisingly, the study concluded that only 4% of this population were successful in reaching their goals. Doing the math, those that actually made a tangible resolution were ten times more likely to achieve their goal than those that had the goal, but made no specific resolution to achieve it. The obvious conclusion is that the act of making the resolution has significant value.

How to Create Positive Habits

In general, the establishment of a new habit benefits from these four steps:

Make it easy – Whatever behavior you want to foster should be easy to adopt. This includes the process you utilize to establish the habit.

Make it obvious – Your contemplation of the habit you want to adopt should be conceived and written down in a way that makes it completely clear.

Make it attractive – The habit itself should be one that is desirable.

Made it satisfying – The new habit should have a clear payoff, with respect to its likelihood to create a tangible benefit to your life.

The Secret to Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions

There are a number of specific helping factors which can be used to initiate and maintain your resolutions, including:

Establish the right mindset. Before establishing your new resolutions, take stock of where you are with your current goals and habits. Did you create new year’s resolutions last year? If so, how did you do? Have you succeeded in applying them to your life? Have you met some or all of your last years’ goals? Will this year’s resolutions be a continuation of some of the ones you initiated a year ago? If you did make progress, give yourself credit. Try to set realistic goals for yourself, perhaps in stages. Don’t expect sudden changes. Remain positive.
Set goals that will help motivate you. Don’t adopt goals or resolutions that are dictated by people around you. Focus on you, and your own aspirations and needs. Choose resolutions that you feel enthusiastic about adopting. They should resonate with your personal goals, aspirations, dreams, and priorities.
Limit your resolutions. This means not only the number of resolutions you list, but also the process required to achieve them. If you think you have too many resolutions, write all of them down. Then rank them in order of priority. The ones at the top of your list are the resolutions to go after. Remember, it’s better to have complete success at one resolution than failure at many.
Make your intentions clear. Be specific about your goal. Try to quantify what success will look like to you. Make sure that the goal is attainable within a realistic timeframe. And make sure that attaining the goal is appropriate to you and your life and needs.
Break up bigger resolutions into smaller, manageable tasks. Perhaps a monthly scorecard will help. Prioritize these tasks and establish benchmarks. Focus on each step, rather than the total resolution.
Create tangible, visual reminders. Write your resolutions down. Create a picture or graphic you can place at your desk, in your car, or on your wall that reminds you daily. Each time you are reminded of your resolution, do something that very day that contributes toward your goal.
Make your resolutions known to others, especially those in your life who play a supportive role. Now, you’re on notice. How will it look to your friends and family when you come up short? Be accountable, not only to yourself, but to your associates. Guilt can be a strong motivator.
Embrace technology that will support your resolution quest. The app world is replete with organizers and calendars with reminder beeps and to-do lists, and the like. Utilize whatever you need to help you stay on track.
Revisit your resolutions regularly, daily if feasible. Approach your resolutions like an accountant. At a minimum, audit your progress on a monthly basis.
Don’t give up. Even if you find yourself off track on your resolutions, keep at it. Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Breaking Your Bad Habits

Resolutions can involve adopting new, positive habits, and it can also involve eliminating negative, destructive habits. In general, breaking habits involves:

Make it invisible – If there is something in your life that stands in your way of self-improvement, especially something tangible or physical, try to eliminate it, or put it out of your everyday view or routine.

Make it unattractive – Spend some time in contemplation about the habit in question, paying attention to how this habit impacts you and your life in a negative way. Write these observations down.

Make it difficult – Sometimes you can put some distance between you and a habit by simply making it more difficult for yourself to engage in it, somehow.

Make it unsatisfying – In your self-analysis, take time to consider whether or not this habit actually provides any satisfaction in your life. Be honest with yourself.

Some New Year’s Resolution Possibilities

For those who don’t already have a laundry list of possibilities for new year’s resolutions, here are some to consider.

Meditation

All day long, we do and do and do. We’re busy juggling our careers, our families, and our personal interests. We go, non-stop. Try not-doing. Meditation is the art of not-doing. This means both physical and mental not-doing. The great Chinese sage, Lao Tzu, called it ‘Wu Wei’, or actionless action.

Find a comfortable spot with no distractions. Put the dog outside. Chase the children away. Turn down the lights. Sit quietly for 15-30 minutes. Once you adopt a posture, don’t move, physically. Close your eyes and gaze within, as if you’re looking at a screen, your inner screen. Without putting any stress on your face or eyes, pinpoint your attention in the center of the screen. Keep your attention engaged on seeing within. When random thoughts arise, ignore them and continue with your inner gaze.

Gratitude

Spend some time thanking yourself and the universe for what you have. We spend too much time stressing over what we don’t have. Gratitude is an expression of love. Love is the panacea for everything.

Experience nature

Make it a point to spend more time out in nature. Breath in the clean air and enjoy the plants and scenery. Get out of that stuffy office or apartment and feel alive!

Journaling

Writing down your thoughts and reflections is one of the most effective methods for achieving self-transformation. There are few activities you can engage in that are more beneficial for anyone seeking self-improvement. Describe what happened during the day. How did your thoughts and actions impact your resolutions, for better or worse.

Embrace healthy activities

Keep your body healthy and vital by supplementing your diet. Try experiencing cold exposure with a cold shower or bath, recognized as a powerful immune booster and stress buster. Be good to yourself.

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14 Productivity Hacks to Optimize Your Workflow

January 29, 2020

At the end of your day, do you feel like you could have gotten more done? Maybe you could have completed more tasks if you cut out distractions or implemented efficiency tactics.

After a long day’s work, you should feel satisfied; a sense of accomplishment and completion. These feelings can become the norm through a few productivity tools and hacks.

Most of us are well-trained and skilled in our job duties and tasks, so we normally don’t bother to explore ways to improve our productivity, although some of the things we do could be done better.

You can use these productivity tools to enhance your ability to get more done throughout the day.

Focus on One Task at a Time

This is sometimes known as the Pomodoro System or Pomodoro Technique. It consists of breaking down your tasks into 25-minute intervals and taking short breaks in between tasks. In this way, you concentrate on one task. You abandon the idea of multitasking. You are focused on the singular task at hand and completely in the zone.

You also have a sense of urgency when you’re on the clock and you forget trying to fine-tune your work. Stress levels are also reduced because you focus on one task at a time instead of trying to get everything done at once.

Mobile Apps for Increasing Productivity

There are a variety of apps on the market that can increase your productivity, whether for handling your emails, notes, financials, reading, etc., and many are free to download. For example, there are apps for grocery shopping, writing, notes, banking, and other mundane tasks.

You can really take advantage of technology to increase productivity whether you’re in the office or somewhere else.

Here is a list of some free apps to explore, which can increase your productivity:

‘Todoist’ - a great to-do list manager
‘Keeper’ - a password manager
‘Shoeboxed’ - for expense tracking
‘Evernote’ – Evernote is essentially a second brain. You can record ALL of your notes on Evernote, whether it’s a thought you’ve been pondering, or notes on a book you’ve been reading, or perhaps for one you’re thinking about writing.

The “Two-Minute” Do-It-Now Rule

There are many tasks that pop-up during your day and they eventually begin to stack up.

Before you decide whether or not to complete a task, ask yourself, “Can it be completed in two minutes?” If it can be completed in two minutes or less, do it now! If the task will take longer than two minutes, add it to your to-do list but make sure to prioritize it appropriately.

Write Down Your Most Important Tasks

Eliminate ambiguity in your workday. Ambiguity can be a productivity killer and a time waster. It has become increasingly important, in an age of perpetual distraction, to prioritize the most important tasks. Take some time in the morning to decide which tasks are the most important ones to your overall vision and address those first.

This practice will help you overcome procrastination and take things off your mind while taking action on a more consistent basis.

Create a Schedule to Check Emails

It’s easy to get sidetracked checking your emails dozens of times a day, especially if you have multiple email addresses. Turn off your email notifications because if you log-in to your email, you’ll end up not only responding to one email but many emails and then you’ll begin organizing them. Instead, choose only a few, specific times each day.

I recommend checking your email once in the morning, again before lunch, and another toward the end of your workday.

Eliminate Website Distractions

There are many websites on the internet that are so, so interesting, but very distracting.

These sites can ruin your productivity. Block those sites on your work computer to increase your productivity level. You can find an effective website blocker if you simply “google it.”

Practice Saying “No”

For many people, it is difficult to say “no” to requests from certain people. Some people want to use or manipulate others. You must practice saying “no” sometimes. Otherwise, these people will kill your productivity.

You can simply let people know that “you’re too busy now and that you’ll let them know if you can get to it later,” as an example.

Listen to Music

You can increase your focus, concentration, and productivity level by listening to certain types of music. It takes some experimentation to figure out what music works best for you since people react differently to different types of music.

There are apps available that provide music that has been scientifically proven to increase productivity. One such example is Brain.fm.

Use a Password Manager

It’s easy to become overwhelmed trying to remember our passwords for the various sites we peruse.

Download a password manager program like LastPass which will remember but encrypt your passwords to keep them safe. This way you can simply log-in without entering your password each time.

Yoga or Meditate Each Morning

Meditation is about concentrating or focusing on one thing and blocking out all distractions.

Studies have shown that both meditation and yoga can decrease stress, enhance creativity, increase focus, and improve memory.

You can begin by meditating or doing yoga for a few minutes each morning. As your practice becomes more routine, you can lengthen the duration of each practice.

Natural Sunlight, Indoors and Outdoors

Open your blinds first thing in the morning to get started with some healthy natural light.

Natural light will improve your mood and your outlook throughout the day. You’ll find yourself being more productive while performing everyday tasks. Sunshine has been shown to facilitate better sleep and an overall better quality of life.

If you live in an area with limited sunlight, remember to take a vitamin-D supplement. Studies show that only about 10 minutes of direct sunlight are needed for your daily dose.

Read What Inspires You

A great way to begin your productive day is to read something, or write something about a subject that you are keenly interested in or passionate about.

You should choose something that you’re curious about and something which can possibly give you talking points with others throughout the day. Inspirational passages can give us the strength we need each and every morning to get through even the most difficult of times and encourage us to push forward when challenges arise.

But don’t spend the entire day reading or writing. Invest 15-20 minutes and move on to the next task.

Other Productivity Tools and Hacks

Don’t forget to put your laptop away for a few hours a day, if possible.
Take time to rest your body and mind.
Track your time and tasks with an app.
Intentionally plan your day in the morning.
Wake up a little earlier to get the most out of your morning between 6-9am.
Alter your environment a bit.

There are many ways to increase productivity. Mold your productivity-enhancing activities according to what works with your body, mind, and schedule. Utilize the above productivity tools and hacks on a regular basis and you’ll see your productivity skyrocket.

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