Tips for Sticking to 2015 goals

New year often means new resolutions, changes we plan to make at the beginning of the year. The real challenge is how to stick to them. As creatures of habit, we have to change our patterns of behaviour and thinking. After all, we’ve probably been practicing the very habits we want to change for years.

 

Our thoughts, feelings and actions all contribute to maintaining these habits. So how can we change them? Here’s what neuroscientist Dr Sarah McKay suggests:

 

‘If – Then’ Planning

 

One key to breaking bad habits is the ‘If-Then plan’, which works by pairing the trigger of the unwanted behaviour with a new desirable behaviour. This involves close mindful examination of what triggers your unwanted habit. For example, perhaps you chew your nails whenever you watch TV. To break the habit you would decide, ‘If I’m watching TV, then I’ll pick up knitting needles and knit a scarf for winter’. This type of ‘If-Then’ planning is much more effective than simply stating ‘My New Year’s resolution is to stop chewing my nails’.

 

Positive visualisation

 

Another study found that positive visualisation is motivating, but only if done in the right way. The trick is to visualise the steps in the process of forming a new healthy habit, not just the outcome. Instead of imagining a fitter, leaner version of yourself, visualise getting up in the morning, putting on gym gear and going to the gym.

 

Define your goals

 

Other research has found you’ll have more success if you define your goals clearly and specifically. ‘I’ll eat vegetables with my lunch and dinner every day’ is more powerful than ‘I’m going to eat healthier food’.

 

Be realistic

 

And finally, researchers studying the uptake of habit formation in everyday life have blown open the myth that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. In one study, it took participants 18 to 254 days to reach ‘automaticity’. Taking a realistic long-term view of success means you’ll not fall prey to the giving up if you slip up, or fall back into old habits. As Aristotle so aptly put it: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit”.

 

So what are your New Year’s resolutions and what are you planning to do to make sure you stick to them?

 

This is an excerpt from ABC Active Memory.