Here Is A Unique New Year’s Resolution Ideas List:
Now before we get started on the new year resolutions list, I hope you’ll read this next section. I know you are eager to choose your resolution and get on with it, but it will make such a big difference in your ability to develop new habits and reach your goals if you learn how to do it the right way.
Your brain is a stubborn machine. It’s like a wild horse that you have to break. For any new behavior to become automatic, you have to train your brain to accept it — slowly, patiently, and repeatedly.
When you develop habits, you’re creating new neural pathways in your brain. It’s like forging a path in an overgrown forest. At first, you have to chop away at the trees, bushes, and brambles. It’s hard work, you have to go slowly, and you have to pay attention every step of the way.
But as you keep traveling the same path, you clear the way without meeting resistance. You don’t have to work so hard or be as focused. Walking the path becomes automatic and easy.
So it goes with forming habits. At first, it’s baby steps, with loads of mental brambles to get past. But as you groove that neural path, it becomes easier and easier.
So as much as you want to jump right into your New Year’s resolution, don’t do it. It would be the equivalent of trying to run a forest path that hasn’t been cleared. You’re going to fall on your face.
How to Form New Habits and Reach Your Goals
Habits and goals aren’t necessarily the same things. When you set a goal, it’s often something big — like writing a book, completing a big project, or starting a business.
Goals require many, many steps before you can reach them. And those steps often involve daily habits.
If you want to write a book, you have to develop the habit of daily writing. If you want to start a business, you have to carve out time every day and create the habit of working on your start-up.
Habits don’t always have to be part of a bigger goal — they can stand alone. You may want to develop the routine of journaling or eating more vegetables every day because these are important to you.
Either way, you want to begin with the smallest possible actions you can take to help you achieve what you want to achieve, and then build from there.
Let’s take a look at the most popular New Year’s resolutions to help you see how to break it down.
The digital marketing company, iQuanti, compiled a list of the most popular resolutions based on Google search terms occurring from January 2016 through October.
Here are the most popular resolutions according to their data:
As you can see, most of these are pretty big goals that need to be broken down into smaller goals and habits.
You’ve probably seen the acronym SMART goals, right? This acronym helps you understand how to break down your goals so you can develop habits around them to get them done.
Get Specific
Getting healthy involves soooo many actions — from fitness activities to dietary changes. So you first have to decide what specific part of getting healthy you want to work on.
Exercise? Changing your diet? If it’s exercise, which exercise will it be? Walking? Going to the gym? Or do you want to eat more veggies, start eating lean meat, or add more water to your diet?
You get the picture here. Break it down. Make it specific. Start with just one change at a time.
Make It Measurable
Next, you want to decide what you want to achieve for the long term and for your short-term goals.
For the long-term, you might decide you want to run five miles within six months or you want to increase the number of vegetables you eat a day from two to eight.
Then you need to decide what you can accomplish in the short term, as you get started developing your new habit and working toward your goal. More on that in a minute.
Assign It
That’s easy. Unless you’re working on a project with another person or group, you are the person taking the actions.
Make It Realistic
This is the part where most people get tripped up. They set themselves up for failure by biting off more than they can chew in the beginning.
Break down your goal into small habits and your habits into small actions. For example, if you want to start running, and you haven’t been a runner before or in a long time, you need to make it so easy that it’s hard to give up!
The first week, maybe you just want to just put on your running shoes, step outside, and run in place for a few minutes. Or if you are working on your diet, you might want to add just one veggie to one meal a day.
Determine Your Time
You want to determine a time to finish your new year’s resolution, but be sure to give yourself a realistic amount of time to achieve it.
For example, if you want to run five miles, you not only have to develop the habit of running, but you also have to build your endurance.
Setting a time goal of one month isn’t realistic, but reaching that goal in six months to a year (depending on your fitness level) is more doable.
You also want to begin your practice with a very small amount of time (like five to ten minutes) and build from there.
The reason for this is that you want to get used to practicing the habit in an easy way before you start building on the habit and working on it for the desired amount of time.
You can increase the time you spend on this routine incrementally every week until you reach your time goal.
