Make 2019 a HUGE Success by Going TINY!!!
January 6, 2019
Happy 2019 Everyone!
I could be really predictable and write a blog post entitled “New Year, New You!!!” and provide tons of golden nuggets on how you can become the healthiest you have ever been. But I know better – making overly ambitious resolutions is often the problem itself. We expect that we can completely change our behaviors without having a solid strategy in place to do so. So, by the time the end of January rolls around, we abandon the effort and often feel worse because we judge ourselves to have failed.
So, instead, I’d like to give you advice on how to make any resolution last! This advice is based on research done by Stanford behavioral scientist, Dr. B.J. Fogg. He has studied how people establish and change habits for over 20 years and has found that there are three keys to success for making what he calls “Tiny Habits”:
· Make each change very, very small. Let’s say that you don’t hydrate enough and you would like to change that. Dr. Fogg recommends that instead of trying to drink fluids ALL DAY, instead just drink more at one time per day. By making the change manageable, it is more likely to be successful.
· Anchor the change to a habit you already perform. It would make sense to have that drink ready and waiting for you right after you leave the gym (assuming that is already a habit). Put your shiny new Yeti tumbler full of green goodness into the car and it will be waiting there for you as soon as you finish up your spinning class!
· Celebrate success! Provide yourself some positive reinforcement when you do the small habit. So, chug that drink and relax to your favorite music playlist or enjoy your heated seat for a few minutes. Really the reward could be anything, at the very least make it a figurative pat on your own back.
There you have it! Come up with a couple of tiny habits that you’d like to incorporate into your life this year and see how it goes. Dr. Fogg even has a FREE online 5-day program to use to successfully establish these tiny habits. Go to www.tinyhabits.com to learn more. And, in case you’re wondering, I’m not a paid endorser of this program – I just think it is a good way to make your resolutions stick!