Happy New You

All of my clients come to me with the desire to create good habits. Whether they want to lose weight, start exercising, find a new job, become vegan, cook more often, get organized, stop over-drinking, etc.There are several small steps we incorporate into their lives to get them on the road to transforming their lives.Focus on the positiveMost people look at adopting any good habit as sacrificing something they enjoy.  And they typically want to see FIERCE results as quickly as possible. This is a recipe for disaster because the only way to create lasting good habits is to re-frame the idea of sacrifice and to make slow lasting changes. For example, if you want to lose weight, you will be more successful if you think of everything attaining your goal will GIVE you and not how attaining your goal will be sacrificing something.Create a way to measure your success.When I started exercising in the mornings 3 plus decades ago, I kept a monthly calendar and put an asterisk on each day I actually got up and exercised. This served as immediate gratification and visual motivation. The more asterisks I saw, the more I wanted to see.Start with very small goals.If I want to start running. The very first initial small goal is to plan to get into my running clothes and walk out the door. If that is as far as I get, FINE. I can chart on a calendar that I did get ready to run, with a specific symbol. Like a circle. At some point, I will actually run for say 2 minutes. Then I can chart on a calendar a circle and 2 minutes. Continue building until you are at your goal. Research shows, how long it takes to form a new habit is very individual.Create new habits from old routines.If your goal is to unclutter your desk at work or at home and it is your habit to pile meeting documents or magazine articles in a pile or groups of piles as soon as your return to your desk, try dealing with it immediately. If you think you will not need the hard copy, throw it away. If you think you might need it, quickly create a folder for the topic/process and put the document inside. There is a good chance by doing this, you will be motivated to do the same with another piece of paper in the same pile.Have clear reasons for wanting to create a FIERCE new good habit.Intrinsic Motivation is part of the goals you make. What is the driving force for making the change to develop this FIERCEnew good habit? It may seem like a small point, but planning for a habit keeps you motivated.Design your environmentIf your goal is to lose 20 lbs, having junk food in the house is not a great idea. Check out your cabinets and get rid of anything you don't want to eat. This will significantly limit the possibility of your eating junk food. Sure, you can still wind up going to the store and buying something. But you will then be making that choice after you already set your intention. The chances are greater that you won't.Surround yourself with FIERCE supportersIt is hard to start a healthy eating habit when you are only surrounded by people who love to eat pizza, drink beer and bake cookies. I'm certainly not suggesting you limit your time with those people, but find a tribe of people who are like-minded as well.Pre-commit to your new FIERCE habitIf you plan to get up early to exercise, make sure you get to bed early enough the night before. Position your alarm clock on the other side of the room from your bed. When it goes off, don't think about "if" you want to actually exercise. Think of the Nike quote "JUST DO IT". Don't let your rationalizing brain take over.Finally, don't give up on the habit if you slip up.It is common to wind up quitting when you don’t see positive results or when you slip up. You start to wonder it is worth it and you start doubting you have the discipline. Psychologists describe this behavior as the What-The-Hell effect. It’s when you set a goal for yourself but then you either don’t reach it or back-slide on it, so you trash talk yourself and let go of any self-control you have left because you feel you've failed.Forming a FIERCE new good habit can be a challenging and delicate process. If you start thinking that it would better to quit the habit because it’s not changing your life, sit down and take a good look at what’s really going on.Final thoughts...A FIERCE new good habit can happen if you keep doing the same routines over and over until they become your habits. While it might feel like forming a new habit is kind of a hassle, it usually takes less than 10 minutes to do something consistently every day.The actual challenge is how to stick to these routines. For this, you need to find the purpose of what you’re doing. When you know the purpose, then you also learn why doing something over and over until it becomes a habit is beneficial to you. Then your life will change because of it.If you want to sign up for a free consultation now!

Happy Holidays and Happy New You!