Happy New Year
Thank you for joining me for yet another year of thoughts, research and recipes.
Todays post is all about New Year resolutions. The beginning of a new year is a great time to take stock – to think of all that has gone before and all the exciting things that are to come.
It is also a time that many people choose to make resolutions to bring about changes.
We have all done this; made resolutions to lose weight, get fitter, drink less or eat healthier. Talking to friends and colleagues it would be fair to say that many of us don’t succeed in making the changes we resolved to make.
Maybe this is because change is hard. It makes us feel uncomfortable.
To quote a book – Changing Habits, Changing Lives by Cyndi O’Meara – “Change is one of the scariest things to do – people like to sit in their comfort zone and continue the habits they have because it takes less energy.”
How long does it take to create a new habit?
There are several books, articles and apps available to help you form a habit, and many of those are built on the assumption that all you need is 21 days.
This number comes from a widely popular 1960 book called Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz.
However, according to a 2009 study, the time it takes to form a habit really isn’t that clear-cut. Researchers from the University College London examined the new habits of 96 people over the space of 12 weeks, and found that the average time it takes for a new habit to stick is actually 66 days; furthermore, individual times varied from 18 to 254 days.
Interestingly, the researchers also found that “missing one opportunity to perform the behaviour did not materially affect the habit formation process.”
In other words, establishing a new behaviour doesn’t require perfection, just your best, most consistent effort across a long period of time. Making resolutions and building better habits is not an all-or-nothing process. Sources – www.sciencealert.com www.psychologytoday.com/au
To make a change you have to make a start.
Once you have made your resolutions, the truth is that it will probably take you anywhere from two months to eight months to build a new behaviour into your life. However, once making the commitment to yourself, make a start. If you want to make changes, you need to put in the effort, as there is no one who can do it for you.
Take small steps
Over the years we have purchased several different books on lifestyle, health etc. Recently I was reviewing 2 of these – Simple Changes by Phillip Day and the Four Day Win by Martha Beck.
These books, along with Changing Habits, Changing Lives, all have a similar theme, which is to start small and work towards your goal.
If a healthier diet is your goal, try small steps like drinking 2 extra glasses of water a day or changing what you eat for breakfast or even just eating salad twice a week. Once you start incorporating one of these steps into your routine, add the next one.
Making small achievable changes, one at a time, over a period of time is easier than trying to change everything overnight.
The information from these books that really hit home for me was that the only person we are answerable to is ourselves.
If we miss a day or lose our way, we can start again.
I hope this helps you with your resolutions and achieving your new goals.
Till the next post,
Live clean n prosper
