New Year, New You
Here we are in the last month of 2020, the longest year to date, or at least it feels like it. If you made resolutions or goals to accomplish this time last year, they may have been flushed down the toilet due to circumstances out of your control. Career advancement, savings goals, exercise routines, and anything else you can imagine were probably met with resistance considering millions of layoffs, sudden changes of homeschooling, and gym closures. Not only are options limited but the motivation to set resolutions may have quickly dwindled when a global pandemic arose. This is extremely understandable, but we are about to start a new year, and so let’s be optimistic about 2021 right off the bat! In this article, I am going to help you set yourself up for success when it comes to deciding on and mastering New Year’s resolutions for 2021.
Despite good intentions, New Year’s resolutions typically don’t survive past January. According to a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, only 46% of people who make New Year’s resolutions are successful. But the individuals that didn’t even bother to set a New Years’ resolution were worse off; only about 4% of those were successful at achieving their goals. That means you are 11 times more likely to accomplish your yearly? goals by simply setting well-intentioned resolutions at the beginning of this year.
However, this isn’t enough to ensure success and the cycle of goal failure has detrimental consequences on your self-confidence (more on this here). So what is the missing piece between you and accomplishing your goals?
Re-evaluating your daily habits.
Resolutions of course vary across the board but some of the most popular include the categories: physical activity, nutrition, finances, hobbies, health, etc. The common denominator in each of these involves developing new habits, or routines and decisions performed each day that get you closer to your goals and/or resolutions. This sounds easier than it actually is to implement but it’s beneficial to understand how habits work in order to change them successfully. Author, Charles Duhigg explains in his book, The Power of Habit. He explains that a habit has 3 components: a cue, a routine, and a reward, which he names, ‘the Habit Loop’. Duhigg believes habits are automated, but not fixated and can be changed or replaced by highlighting the cues and rewards while changing the routine component.
Why Habits Form:
Your brain is hardwired to take the easy way out, it wants to use less brainpower to accomplish tasks and save effort and that is why habits are formed. Duhigg explains a part of the brain, called the Basal Ganglia, influences behavioral control. It also stores your habits to make them quickly accessible and automatic. Once a habit is stored, you don’t need to use your rational part of the brain to execute tasks. In addition, your brain has two spikes of activity when performing a habit: at the beginning (the cue) and at the end (the reward). In between those spikes, the brain surrenders control to the habit allowing you to carry out the habit in an “automated mode.” Which means the middle part does not require a large amount of brain power and can become automated over time to be easier to perform. However, when first implementing a NEW habit, your brain uses more energy. This is why it feels so difficult to decide what to eat for lunch when you’re first trying to incorporate more fruits and vegetables, but as time goes on, you already know what you like and it starts to become an easier, more automatic decision.
The Habit Loop Breakdown: Let’s review what you just learned.
Cue: This is any trigger in your environment that tells your brain to select a specific routine and go into automatic mode. This can be a specific location, time of day, a certain emotional state, group of people, or just a pattern of behaviors that trigger a certain routine.
Routine: A physical, mental or emotional behavior that follows the cue automatically. This is the action part of the habit, the eating of a daily cupcake, watching a nightly tv show, drinking a daily nightcap.
Reward: The last part of the habit loop, a positive result that you get from the routine. It is something your brain is craving. This can be anything that brings you joy, an opportunity to socialize, fulfilling a hunger, providing yourself a break, or a chemical release in the brain like endorphins released after a workout or oxytocin released after a good hug.
How To Change A Habit:
You can easily change your habits by just changing the action part (the routine) and keeping the cue and reward consistent. The cue stays the same, for example, that 2:30 pm slump at the office that provokes you to get up from your desk. The routine changes from your usual afternoon energy drink (that you have to walk to the fridge to get) to an afternoon walk or a call with a close friend. The reward gained from either scenario is maybe getting a break from the computer screen or a jolt of renewed energy. Plus making a call to a friend can release feel-good hormones and help you feel connected to others in a time when most are feeling completely isolated.
The reward component of the habit loop is one of the most important parts because it is the main reason habits exist, so it’s important to have the routine fulfill something you are craving. It will make the changed routine easier to keep consistent. For example, the endorphin rush after a workout helps fuel the habit of keeping up with a workout routine.
In addition, it’s beneficial if the cue and reward stay the same so there is something familiar at the beginning and at the end. Then changing what really matters, the routine, becomes much easier. Old habits are still present in your thoughts, but as you continue to develop and use new ones, the new ones become stronger than the old and more automatic. Think about how many times you have reached for a snack during quarantine to beat boredom. If you’re not physically hungry, you can beat boredom by playing a game on your phone, reading 10 minutes of a book, or even sit with these feelings of boredom and use a meditation app. The cue of being bored is the same, but the routine is different.
Changing any habit is easily described but not easy to do because it can be difficult to identify and understand your cues and rewards. You are right, it takes work. However, understanding why you do a certain habit is the first step to changing it. For example, the underlying reason for nail biting might be to fulfil a need for physical stimulation, or your compulsive snacking throughout the day might be your way of procrastinating work or getting away from your desk. Figuring out a reward can be kind of tricky but whatever it is, the new routine needs to match the initial reward to be successful at changing the habit.
Developing new habits is a bit easier because you can establish new cues and rewards to train your brain by using the three component Habit Loop system. Establish your cue, routine, and reward. The more you receive the reward, the more your brain will start to crave the routine at the site of the cue. For example, let’s say you want to start running in the morning so you decide to start setting your shoes and clothes on your nightstand each night so it’s the first thing you see when you wake up. If we break this down, the cue is your shoes, the routine is actually running and the reward is what I like to call the “runner's high” or the feeling of accomplishment after the run. After a while you will start to crave the running and once those endorphins get released, they will likely be a sufficient reward in itself.
Steps To Habit Changing & Building:
Ask yourself three questions
What did I set out to do in the past year?
Where did I make progress?
Where didn’t I make progress?
Take stock of your current habits in your life. Acknowledge the ones that are beneficial and the ones that are not.
Once you have separated out your habits into cues, routine, and rewards, decide which routine you want to swap the old routine for.
In each habit you want to change, identify the cues, routines, and rewards in your life.
Find Your Cue -- What triggers your habit?
Location cue -- Spending more money when you’re at the mall, eating a cookie because you walked by it in the kitchen, etc. Location can be one of the most powerful triggers for habits. You already have mentally assigned habits and behaviors to particular locations (home, office, etc) that can be replaced, altered or created.
Time cue -- Checking your phone right when you wake up, curing afternoon blues with 2:30 PM cookie. Take stock of how you feel at this time of day. In many cases, your habits are a signal of how you feel. If you understand the reason why these habits occur at the same time each day, then it can become easier to find a new habit to fill the void.
Company cue -- Do you have friends who trigger your spending habits or encourage happy hours? When you know who triggers these habits, you are able to start taking control and saying no or talking to them about it. You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.
Emotional State cue -- What actions do you take when you are sad, celebrating or stressed? Online shopping ring any bells?
Choose Your Cue -- Pick a trigger that is specific and immediately actionable.
If you want to start doing squats or push-ups every day. Start with a time-based cue. Such as your lunch break. Then get specific, “At the beginning of my lunch break I am going to do 15 pushups/squats before eating.” Experiment and play around with different cues to find the one that is most powerful
For building new habits, what habit do you want to build?
Premeditate on the cues and rewards. These have to be very specific such as saying “Every Friday I am going to take a walk at 5:30 PM with my favorite neighbor,” instead of saying “I am going to exercise more with friends.” Write down the cue as 5:30 PM on Friday and the reward is gossiping with your buddy while being active.
Find your reward -- the reward increases the likelihood of repeating the routine. It can be chocolate, an hour of TV, an extra hour of sleep. Get personal and creative.
If you constantly repeat the cue→ routine → reward loop, the habit becomes automated in your brain. Repetition is key! It communicates to your brain that this habit is important, which will lead to it being hardwired into the brain.
(Click here for a FREE printable worksheet for altering or creating new habits)
Resolution Rapid Fire Tips:
Stay positive and believe in yourself.
Start with gradual changes and build on smaller changes over time, instead of tackling big/quick change all at once.
Allow room for error. Life happens
Set a goal that motivates you. People often choose a goal they feel they should accomplish to please others but it is not self-motivated.
Limit resolutions to a manageable amount. Instead of trying to accomplish 10 goals, choose 1-5. Having too many resolutions is a great way to set yourself up for disappointment.
Prioritize your list of resolutions. You may not accomplish all of them.
Share your resolutions with others, find some allies with similar goals and try to meet or connect regularly with them. These are people you can share setbacks and accomplishments with.
Automate where possible. Set recurring reminders in apps, alarms, Google calendar, etc. For example, to ensure you always have fresh fruit and vegetables, you can set a cart to reoccur on Instacart or Thrive market or ensure fresh produce comes to your door from companies like Ugly Produce. Use Google calendar to make workout dates with friends or a tutoring session for those learning a new skill/language.
Pick intervals to re-evaluate your resolutions to make sure they’re still relevant and aligned with your desires. If they’re not, don’t feel ashamed for ditching them. You’re always evolving and that means your goals are too.
Stay motivated, you are capable of so much more than you think!
