Don’t Quit

Did you make a New Year’s resolution this year? Apparently something like 60% of American adults report they commit to doing something better in the next year. No matter what your resolution was, whether to try to stop smoking, get more organized or the most common resolution — to lose weight, today is the day when most people break their resolution.

It seems that five or six days is the standard amount of time people can stick to a plan they have made. If you are one of those people don’t worry. Just because you broke your resolution does not mean that you have to wait 359 days to try again, just start again, right now.

Changing any habit, especially a bad one, is work all the time. I know that there is some study that says that a new way of living becomes a habit after about three months, but I just don’t believe that. I think that it takes years of constant attention to do the right thing mindlessly.

Even though I committed to walking 20,000 steps a day twelve months ago, once I took my foot off the peddle I did not come back to actually doing again for over a month. I finally have completed a whole week of over 20,000 steps a day, but it has been hard work. I forgot how much time it actually takes to walk that much. I tried adding some running, but my hips were not happy with me for a few days after those running bursts.

I can say that after ten months of really trying to walk that much everyday it was no habit. So don’t depend on this illusion that you can retrain your brain to do the right thing automatically, instead commit to just keep trying. If you fall off the wagon, just get back on.

Resolutions are just a jumping off point. My suggestion to make you more successful and one that I have used for myself with the best results is to set a goal and share it. Don’t just tell your loved ones, but shout it out to the world and own your resolution. Saving face by just doing what you said you would do is the best way to change your bad habits. I promise keeping your resolution a secret is the fastest way to fail.