HABITS, not Resolutions

It’s the new year, which means one thing is clear – many of us are desperately trying to stick to our ambitious, and often guilt-driven, new year’s resolutions. With the new year happening during the holiday season, we more often than not make unrealistic resolutions around losing weight, exercising more, drinking less…

Often, our resolutions are really big, visionary goals, and therein lies the problem. These visions are really hard to turn into daily actionable habits, and we end up being at a loss with how to realistically attain these. Without consistent habits, we simply can’t achieve big goals. Typically this is why health and fitness “6 week challenges” typically fail, there is no habit or behaviour change attached to the method.

This is why building habits IS the better way. Habits are rituals and behaviours that we automatically perform, which allow us to carry out essential activities that are vital to our lives, like showering, getting dressed, and even making your bed up each morning. Imagine if going for a daily walk, exercising, eating well, going to bed at the right time was an ingrained habit… much like brushing your teeth, or having a shower?

Habits are far more reliable than resolutions because while they take time to form, once you create them, you don’t want to let them go. Typically we say it takes 4-6 weeks to create a habit, but only 2 weeks to break them. That’s why getting back into healthy habits after a holiday can be so tough! While establishing habits isn’t always the easiest, it’s a far more sustainable way.

So rather than setting unrealistic resolutions in January, here are simple habits we can look to improve your wellbeing. If we can focus on FEELING GOOD then the LOOKING good will be the by-product of this.

· Habit #1 – Get a regular good night’s sleep of 7-9 hours.

· Habit #2 – Do some form of movement every day!

· Habit #3 – Don’t overeat

· Habit #4 – Create untouchable times for yourself to #downshift and enjoy your summer

And most of all, be consistent. Success is the sum of small efforts, repeated day in and day out.

Jimmy August

ReDefined Founder