By Jane McKenna
It’s very easy to make grand new year’s reso-lutions – the hard bit is sticking to them. If by the time you are reading this your good inten-tions are perilously close to falling by the wayside, have a look through the following 7 ways you can start to develop positive, healthy and most importantly, sustainable habits.
Re-think your goal
Stop thinking about what it is you are trying to achieve and start focusing on the why in-stead. If you want to stick to your new habits, you need to think about why it is meaningful to you. Try asking yourself how you want to feel if you continue with this new habit. For example, rather than the goal being to lose weight, the why might be to feel fitter and stronger, or to be a positive role model for your children.
Take it one step at a time
It can be useful to have a bigger aim in mind, however it is key to break it down into small-er steps. If the end goal feels too overwhelm-ing it is common to try and tackle too much in one go, resulting in a loss in focus and a feel-ing of failure before you’ve even begun. Over time progressive, consistent smaller steps will accumulate and lead to much bigger change.
Change your environment
What is going on around us has a huge influ-ence on our behaviours. Be honest with your-self about the things, people or places that may have an impact. Create an environment that supports your new habits and remove any barriers that have the potential to stop you from taking positive steps in in your new hab-it. Don’t be afraid to tell friends and family of your intentions either. They can not only sup-port you, but a feeling of accountability to others can help you to stay on track.
Make a plan
Although it sounds obvious, planning the time and place you will undertake your new habit each week will help you stick to it. So don’t just say you will go for a walk every day, ac-tually put it in your diary. If you can make it a regular time each day, then even better.
Measure progress
Keeping a track of your progress not only keeps you accountable, but it also helps you see how far you have come. Additionally, if things haven’t gone quite as you planned, you can work out what changes you need to make to move forward. On that subject …
Accept that setbacks will happen
We’re all human after all. Setbacks are a natu-ral part of life and accepting that they are like-ly to rear their head will help deal with them when they do. Try to see it less as a roadblock and more as an opportunity to adapt. If some-thing is getting in the way of your daily walk or meeting-free Friday, think practically about what needs to change to make it happen. The most important thing though, if you do drop the ball, is to be kind to yourself, draw a line under it and move on. Tomorrow is a new day.
Find the joy
Jane McKenna is an accredited Career and Life Coach based in Sunbury. She set up Brilliant Me to support people who want to re-shape their work/ life balance. She helps her clients to make meaning-ful changes to create clarity, balance and find fulfilment in their lives and careers. Jane provides 1 to 1 coaching, group programmes and monthly workshops. www.brilliantme.co.uk