It was the ancient Babylonians that started the tradition of setting New Year’s resolutions.
4,000 years later, it’s something that’s become as much of a tradition for us as Christmas pudding and present giving.
Now we have whole industries built around re-inventing ourselves each new year.
A tradition that it’s estimated around 25% of Brits do each year:
- 38% want to exercise more,
- 33% want to lose weight, and
- 32% want to eat more healthily
But, by the 3rd Sunday of January, the majority of people will have given up on their resolutions.
There’s now even a name for the day: Quitters Day!
Named by Strava, who identified this as the ‘quit day’ by analysing usage of their sports performance app.
So, if this is you and you’re feeling disheartened about it, you are most definitely not alone.
Research shows that only 6-8% of people keep their resolutions.
But if you’re one of the many people for whom the turbulence and unpredictability of 2020 has made you made you determined to make changes and focused on your mental and physical health, then it’s more important than ever that you make change in a sustainable way.
So why is it so hard to make change stick?
Everything you do is a habit, and while you may have heard that it takes between 21 and 67 days to create a new habit, that’s only partly true.
Repetition definitely does play a role, but it’s not the only factor and much of the time, we’re making some common mistakes that prevent us changing our habits.
And because we don’t do it the right way, we quit and become discouraged, making it harder to start again.
So how can you know if you’ve been falling into trap of changing in a way that does’t work?
Give yourself one point for each question you say yes to?
- Have you thought “It’s christmas so I’ll just have……” and then panicked when you got on the scales?
- Did you wish someone could wave a magic wand so you could get rid of it quickly?
- Did you then set yourself a huge weight loss target?
- Then search in desperation for ‘the’ diet that would get you to your target weight the quickest?
- Did you set out with loads of motivation but then it seemed to disappear just as quickly?
- Did you cut out all the things you like and just power through until you lost a bit of weight, but then realised it was just so restrictive that you simply couldn’t continue?
- Did it take all your focus, effort and energy, but then you reached a point where you were exhausted by it all and/or life got in the way?
- Did you follow it perfectly to the letter, then have one day off for whatever reason and then quit?
- When you quit, did you feel like a failure and that made you feel discouraged from starting again?
- Do you now find yourself saying I can’t lose weight?
If you answered yes to any of these, then the chances are you’re making at least one of the common mistakes that prevent habits from sticking:
#1: Relying on willpower & motivation
Willpower & motivation are useful. They’ll get you started and power you through until about Quitters Day! But, it won’t keep you going.
Staying motivated is the key to success so you need different strategies to those that get you started in the first place.
#2: Doing too much, all at once
Consistency is key to making habits stick and urgency is the enemy of sustained change.
We often think that speed is important, but it leads to starting for a short burst then quitting for a long period of time. So while there may be a big initial result, it’s not sustained over a long term period.
Doing too much, all at once
Consistency is key to making habits stick and urgency is the enemy of sustained change.
We often think that speed is important, but it leads to starting for a short burst then quitting for a long period of time. So while there may be a big initial result, it’s not sustained over a long term period.
#3: Perfectionism
I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work. Thomas Edison
We often become discouraged when we don’t stick to something perfectly every day and it often leads us to quitting.
Then we believe it doesn’t work for us.
Or worse, that we’re a lost cause.
But everything you do is a habit.
You’ve just been falling into a very common trap of changing in a way that doesn’t work for you. Even if it appears to work for others. It may not be right for you.
If you feel disillusioned and discouraged from starting again,
The answer is not to keep going.
Or to start a new diet or something similarly to what you’ve tried before.
You already know that that hasn’t worked for you.
It’s to try something completely different.
The ancient Babylonians began not in January but in mid-March on the first moon after the spring equinox.
And you can change at any time too.
I’m inviting you to re-start 2021 with my 30-day kickstarter programme, where you’ll learn how to break old habits and build new ones without falling into these old traps.
Click here to find out more.