mebeing
While you think of the New Year, the new you nothing more than a magazine-cover trope, it isn’t something unreal. The New Year is the shiniest time of the year and the most hopeful when you imagine how remarkable, how kind, how physically and mentally healthy you could be. What is magical about this time is that you hope for events to provide you with an opportunity to create new narratives about for yourself. January is considered as a fresh start and extremely powerful for making resolutions for the entire year ahead.
All the resolutions that you make, are at the core of your daily habits. They can be either good ones or bad ones but if you want to bring a change that is where you need to start. Following are the few science-based strategies for making sure that your new habits endure:
1. Take smaller steps:
Most people consider that big changes can be created with bigger jumps. That is unrealistic because you cannot go from zero to four gym sessions every week. You cannot even switch to a healthy diet overnight or meditate for an hour without having any practice of it. Therefore, take smaller steps i.e. if you want to practice meditation, begin with five minutes a day, or exercise ten to fifteen minutes initially to start regular practice at the gym.
2. Make a chain:
The best way to stick to your habits is to create a chain and do not allow it to break. For example, if you want to become a writer then start by writing one sentence every day. No matter how hectic your routine is, don’t break that chain and with the passage of time, you will learn to write more.
3. Set clear intentions:
You must set clear intentions for sticking to new habits. Link your newly formed habits to an already existing behavior, for example, think as after you leave the office, you will go for a brisk walk. For making your habit more prominent, give it a space in your schedule by writing it on the calendar.
4. Reward yourself:
Rewarding yourself is a good practice to actually make your habits stick. When you complete a small task, reward yourself, and celebrate your wins. Science has proved that no matter how small achievement you make, the reward strategy releases some key chemicals in your brain and make you experience feelings of achievement and pride.
5. Create an environment:
The environment plays a very important role in making you stick with your habits. According to experts, you must shape your environment in order to support your desired habits. For example, if you want to read books, place a great book on the couch or place where you like to spend most of your time.
No matter what habit you want to adopt, you must first adopt a scientific and subject mindset and consider everything that you do as a behavioral experiment where each setback provides a valuable data for your next step.
