Keeping Resolutions in 2016

bywhysmk

114 followers

Updated 9 years ago

Happy New Year to those of you fortunate enough to be living in Australia and other areas of the world where 2016 has been rung in. For me, in California, U.S.A., I still have more than 15 hours to go.

Well, this is the time of year where all of us start thinking about resolutions. But the truth of the matter is, few actually meet these lofty goals. Why? We often bite off more than we can chew.

Science has shown that it takes 21 days of focused learning to form a new habit. If the habit involves something large, that would mean breaking it down into smaller chunks to focus on in three-week increments.

This past year, I have read a number of self-help books geared towards improving my writing, and habit formation has been mentioned in all. I’ve also focused on several books focused specifically on forming those habits as well. Many involved practical ideas for creating good habits and removing bad habits, which I've started applying to my own life.

So, I encourage you to change your programming for setting resolutions for 2016. Since our human brain is geared towards the 21-day rule (well, for me, I think it takes closer to 40 days – in some things, I’m a slow learner), we should make our resolution to be one of a series of actions that we will focus on for three-week periods at a time. Not bite off so much that we feel the need to spit it all out.

If you want to lose weight, for the first three weeks you could focus on forming the habit of walking more – get a step counter and set incremental goals, park farther from store entrances, set aside a block of time for outright walking (and maybe enjoying a favorite podcast or audio book). Then once walking has reached the point of daily habit, you might add going to the gym for the next three weeks for weight building. Don’t let the first habit disappear though. The 21-day increments will make it possible to add lasting changes that become daily habits.

For me, my habit formation continues to be with setting up my daily writing habits and creating success on the web. I’m sure many of you share these same resolutions. For the first three weeks, I’m going to focus on writing a blog a day for one of my two sites. This is actually a full-time job for me right now, taking at least 6-8 hours. But once it becomes habit, I can see myself doing it as quickly as others do. And then I'll be able to focus on other ideas I have for improving my web sharing.

Anyhow, I wanted to share some thoughts on how to keep those resolutions that we all tend to make with fresh starts. It is a gift to be given a new beginning regularly. And the new year – 2016 – can become a more blessed one with the small steps we take towards forming good habits of success.