Resolution Solution: Happy New Year!

The Art (and Science) of Making and Keeping New Year’s Resolutions

Ok, I know it’s sort of cool NOT to make any New Year’s Resolutions, but if you are uncool, like me, and are REALLY intending to do some things differently this year, here are a few tips.

1)   The formula for success is Time + Effort (vs. Doing it Right).

2)   It takes about 21 days to create a simple new habit.

3)   The habit needs to be a concrete action i.e. to Lose Weight: Eat more vegetables.  Exercise at least 30 minutes 3x/week.  Keep a food diary.  (That sort of thing.)

4)   The action needs to have a home (just like our stuff).  Where will it go in your day?

5)   Don’t use the clock.  Instead, use “it will go before _____ (something rewarding or relaxing) and after ________ (something you already do every day)

6)   To create a new habit, you need to reward it every single time in the beginning (the first 21 days).

7)   To maintain the habit, you need to reward it at random intervals (think gambling).

8)   In the beginning the amount of time needs to be so small that it’s easier just to do it, than to talk  yourself out of doing it.

9)   The effort includes EVERYTHING connected to it – i.e. staring into space trying to decide where to start and trying to recover your on-line bank password.

10)   Stop when you said you would stop.  If you don’t trust yourself to stop, then tomorrow, you won’t trust yourself to do it for “just 5 minutes.”  This helps rebuild personal integrity.

These are some of the principles used in the 28-day program inside my book – Starting Tomorrow: Get Stuff Done & Have More Fun!  To learn more, click the link that says "book" and sign up for my email list to get Part One: She Blinded Me with Science: - for FREE!