A Fresh Start Feels SO Great!
Happy New Year! Don’t you LOVE the feeling of a fresh start? A clean slate. Feeling the excitement of what could be… this is how so many of us start out the new year. Filled with intentions, resolutions, goals, whatever you want to call it. Sure, the momentum is strong for those first couple of weeks, but then what?
It’s hard to maintain that same excitement after the initial lift-off. It’s easy to feel bored quickly when you’re starting something new because it’s not in your body as a habit yet, and the resistance can be intense.
Whatever you want to do — whether it’s getting more healthy, adding in more fitness, or getting out in nature more — there need to be incentives in place to help you stay on the positive momentum you started with! Everyone’s different, but on average, habit forming takes 30-60 days if something is done consistently.
Here are three tips for making the resolutions stick:
Accountability Buddies, AKA “AB”s, can help maintain that force! If you have a friend, co-worker, or family member who wants similar things, you can set up a system where you check in with each other each day or week to ensure you’re staying on your game! With this plan, you might be surprised at how quickly a habit CAN take hold, and soon, it is a part of your daily life, and you don’t ponder it.
It’s best to start SMALL. Most of us have big, lofty goals we want to accomplish by January 3 at the very latest! Starting with small steps each day is doable and calibrates your body and mind to the new thing you’re doing. Do this day after day, and before you know it, you’ve integrated a new habit into your routine!
Whatever you want to develop into a new habit, start with 3-5 minutes. Add on a minute or two from there every other day or so. We can all find five minutes in a day to tend to something. Let that become a habit. It will stretch to 7, then 10, then 12, then 15, then 20.
Whatever it is, start small with a gradual increase over time, and you will have a healthy integration into your body! Your muscle and mind memory will do the work each day!
I’ve done this process with the following: Running, Meditation, Yoga, Pilates, Working on my business, Journaling, Mindset work, and Breathwork.
This is key: If you fall off track, get back on with no sass to yourself!
We are all human and we fall off track but can always choose to get back on with no drama! You can pick up where you left off; the odds are, it will be easier than the first few times you did it!
Give these skills a try! Let me know how it is going for you. You can keep that fresh and free feeling all year long!
What habit forming has worked for YOU? Leave a comment below!
