Did you fail your New Year’s intentions yet?

01 februari 2021

Not that we want you to, of course, it’s just that the mathematical odds aren’t in anyone’s favor.

See, researchers have officially marked January 10th as ‘Quitter’s Day’, which refers to the day our good intentions for the new year are most likely to roll over and die. Encouraging isn’t it?

So that gym habit you swore to pick up, that book on empathic leadership you vowed to read, that commitment to a more organized life... Chances are your #newyearnewme is pretty much game over at this point.

But what if your intentions this year were really important to you? What if you needed to implement new habits that allowed you to keep your sanity at home, or prevent chaos from taking over at the office?

Should you just give up and accept that you’re simply a statistical normality?

Of course not.

As many thought leaders will gladly profess, new habits can be formed and you can get out of your own way. It just requires a little bit more than wishful thinking on January 1st.

In fact, the secret sauce to creating new habits that really, truly last, always contains the following ingredients:

1. Focus

   Honest introspection is a must here. Have you defined the new habit as a priority? Have you made a rational choice that you want this? Do you feel that you want it, too?

   As human beings, we are ruled by our existing habits, so creating new ones, requires conscious focus and creating an environment that supports your new habit. Set an alarm. Position that book on top of your pillow so you can’t forget about it. Prepare your running outfit the night before.

   Willpower alone won’t get you there, so it’s important to find a setup that really works for your life.

2. Managing your time
   
   So you’ve decided that you really want to develop your communication skills and you’ve created an environment that supports that decision. You’ve bought an online course, have researched some great books and are feeling focused. Great!
   
   The second hurdle in forming new habits, is finding the time to actually form them. Life is busy. It really is. Besides working overtime, doing homework with your kids, picking up groceries and dropping your mother-in-law off at the doctor’s office, one could hardly be blamed for pushing all the additional stuff to the back of the to-do list.
   
   But many new habits stand or fall with your ability to allocate time to them. If something is really important you, you’ll need to learn to be effective and efficient with your time, too.

3. Resilience
   
   You will mess up at some point and feel bad about it. The third ingredient of lasting new habits is understanding that the path towards them is, and will never be, perfect.
   
   Implementing change is hard, so how you deal with things when you eventually do slip up, is crucial in whether you’ll be successful long term.

You’ll never hear us say that becoming a better version of yourself is easy. But you will hear us say that trying to do so, is probably one of the best investments you will ever make. (And to be honest, it can feel pretty darn good to beat the odds once in a while. No more Quitter’s Day for you..!)

Good luck on your journey!