New Year, New Habits
As we approach 2024, we’re all thinking about those good ol’ New Year’s Resolutions and often times, these don’t stick. Why?
The secret they don't tell you about any new habit or routine is that you have to make it work for you. You have to take what you see others doing and adjust it to meet your needs. You have to listen to yourself. You have to go with your gut. You have to celebrate your successes AND accept your failures. You have to, ultimately, embrace the messiness that comes with starting something new.
Here’s my process for making habits work for me:
Step 1: Always define the habit or routine for yourself first: What is it? What will it look like for you? What do you hope to achieve? Why is this something you want to do? Note: as you learn about your habits; practice different versions of balance and self-care; and reflect on your practice, you’ll start to revise and redefine what they mean for you - this is a great thing! Do not, I repeat do not start this process by spending hours on your definitions - they won’t be perfect the first time. This is part of the process. You must show yourself some grace and allow yourself the time and space for revision - the most vital part of this process. It’s through revising that you’re adjusting the habit or routine to meet your needs and working to make the habit or routine stick (more on this in Consistency Part 3: Making New Habits Stick).
Step 2: Now that you’ve defined your new habit or routine, you must define success - visualize what it will look like for you to achieve the ideal habit or routine you are adding to your life. Defining your success is key because, again, success is different for all of us. This allows you to take ownership of your practice.
Step 3: Define your purpose: How will this habit or routine impact your quality of life? Why is this habit or routine important to you? Why should you make time for it? This will ground you and remind you, on those tough days, to keep going even when it gets hard.
Step 4: Create your action steps - what will you do to achieve your version of success?
Step 5: Develop a plan to monitor your progress - this could be creating a bullet journal spread; asking yourself at the end of the day/week/month: how did I do? what did I achieve? what did I struggle with? how did this habit contribute to my purpose? how can I adjust this habit to better meet my needs?; or having a buddy to hold you accountable and check in with on a weekly basis. This step is key to your success and you need to make this something that works for you. Otherwise, you will never know if you achieved your goals and you might feel like a failure for not - and who knows, you’ll probably surprise yourself with how much you actually accomplished.
Step 6: Go back through the steps, once a quarter, semester, year. This will allow you to analyze your successes and struggles and continue to revise and redefine the habit or routine for yourself. It is human nature to grow, adjust, and need something different at different stages and chapters of our lives and it’s up to us to listen to ourselves , be kind to ourselves, show ourselves grace, and, ultimately, hold ourselves accountable to what we want to achieve.
Take it from experience, be kind to yourself...listen to your body, mind, heart, and soul. Give yourself what you need because that’s what makes habits stick.
