With the New Year approaching it is a cultural tradition to take time to reflect and think about what we want our next year to look like. Resolutions are a popular thing for us, and I’m sure even if you haven’t thought of your resolution yet, someone is bound to ask you soon enough. This can be a helpful time for us to change or create a habit that would well, potentially change the course of one’s life.
Here at Life in the AVL we are excited to interview experts in their fields of study on a variety of subjects that are high on the resolution thought list. Health being the biggest overall subject we will dive into the world of fitness, nutrition, supplements and body care. We will be hitting a wide range of subjects known to improve lifestyle and whole-body health. With these interviews we can learn about what we want to improve in, learn the successful habits of people who practice it ritually and seek some advice to get us on our own path.
This post is an introduction to this month’s health series; so let’s dive into the subject of habits to begin the journey of getting shit accomplished.
Habits make or break us. We are creatures of them. They keep us in the know of the unknown. They either work for us or against us, but we can train them to be more beneficial than not. The most effective means of changing your life, is rooted in your habits.
New years resolutions actually are a genius way to start a new beneficial habit for us, but sadly can get lost along the way because the old habits creep back in. Resolutions help create new habits because you did the most important thing to do when thinking of what change you want to make. You DECIDED. Change starts with a decision, you do that and you’re pretty much set to go. Wait..what about all the work that follows? Honestly that will hardly matter once you have made up your mind to do it. No excuse will be great enough if you actually promise yourself this is what you have to do to produce the results we want. Also, it has given us a time to start; no I’ll start tomorrow when it is set in stone that January 1st is the day!
Now that you’ve made your decision, let’s work on getting there. Let’s make our habits work for us by setting them into a routine, which essentially is the definition of a habit. A habit is a routine behavior that is practiced regularly and usually triggered by our environment. Oh it’s after breakfast and you always light up a cig? That is a habit, but habits can be tricked with some will power. What if now it’s after breakfast and instead of lighting up a cigarette you drink a cup of tea. Practicing this will re-wire your brain to not think after breakfast=cig, instead after breakfast=tea. Of course this will be hard to rewire at first but putting it into practice will eventually make it easier and easier.
With a routine there is now a set time to practice our habit without any other thought than to do it. This is the key to how to keep up with the change we want to see and not let our resolution fade out. When we have a routine it helps break down the goal into measurable steps. That is the difference between the thought of “this year is the year my side hustle (my passion) will exceed my 9-5 job allowing me to quit it”. Great decision, but that side hustle now needs to have new habits that it didn’t have last year or you wouldn’t be setting this as a goal for upcoming year. Make a routine for the extra time you will put into it.
Let’s use some examples to clarify routines:
Want to write that book you’ve been dreaming about? Pick out the best time to write for you; is it in the morning before anyone in the house wakes up?
Oh, you’re strapped for time, eh? Aren’t we all? But if this decision is that important to you, get inventive to make time. You don’t necessarily need to type the book out to start it, on your commute to work have your phone on audio recording and start your book that way. You’ll make time to type it out once you’ve audio birthed it.
Want to eat a healthier diet, turn your meals into routine where you know what you will be eating, plan it out and pack lunches if needed for on the go.
If an excuse is too big that means you’re just not ready to change, and if that is the case you’ll need to accept that nothing will change unless your mind set does.
Another important step after making your decision is to become clear on why. Why do you want to quit that bad habit? Is it so your children aren’t influenced to start it? Your why needs to be the heart of the decision. It doesn’t have to be a change the world decision either! Maybe you want to have a better cleaning routine to keep your house cleaner. Well a good why could be you don’t want your loved ones living in a less-than-clean house?
I learned a nice thought from a man who didn’t speak much English one night while visiting my boyfriend’s (at the time) house. He was talking about the cleanliness habits of the other roommates. He started to go off why they are not up to par with his cleaning habits. He went on with a passionate speech on: A dirty house=sickness.
I don’t know why it took me till then to really realize the truth in this. Now listen, I didn’t have a gross dirty house but I also didn’t have a weekly or any routine in cleaning. Just when I had spare time which isn’t something we have a lot. I decided then thinking how if I don’t want to get sick, I better set down a routine. Every Sunday I would clean the whole house! This worked for awhile until my sister moved out and the house then seemingly got a whole lot bigger. Instead of giving up on my Sunday cleaning I broke it into two parts: Saturday dusting, Sunday the rest.
Sometimes you need to tweak your new habit once you start practicing it to make it work for you. Now I don’t stress if the house is disorganized on Friday because I know it will be worked on during my set aside hours. It is a relief to have a routine for now I don’t have to think “ maybe I should clean today” for each day until I finally do.
Now that you probably know way too much about my cleanliness (it served as a good example for my point), set a routine to know what you need to accomplish each week to meet your goal.
Things that can help you get into the swing of things:
- Get a PLANNER
- Don’t go to sleep without writing your to-do list in your planner to get it out of your mind (rest comes easier then.)
- Tell a close friend or loved ones about your new routine, for two reasons: They can ask you how it’s going and this will motivate you to do it so you don’t have to admit…you didn’t. Another reason is they won’t disturb you during your set aside time, they know you now work out in the mornings therefore they won’t ask you to go for coffee unless they know they will be having to drink it at your workout class with you.
- Keep your why always on your mind. Use it like a light saber for excuses. You can get all caught up in your head about why you don’t feel like doing what you’re suppose to do. You can really justify why today you don’t have to but when you break out your reason why you need to it is easier to ignore the chitter chatter of reasons why not.
A nice example of this is I’ve been doing routine work out practice for the past year and a half now, you would think with all that time it would be easy to go to the gym. I find myself still complaining some mornings why I rather not go. I simply let those thoughts ride out as I get ready; put on my workout pants one leg at a time, thinking how I should really rest instead, I’m oh so sleepy. Now I’m all dressed and head to the bathroom with new excuses, “I should really call my mom instead.” Tie my shoes on with my thoughts working REALLY hard now why today I should skip it. Welp now I’m out the door, water bottle in hand, heading to class because my why is always superior. Then I’m in class bouncing, running and throwing weights around happy as a clam.
Okay last but not least is a habit you need to start putting in to practice today for success. This will set you up to accomplish anything you set your mind to, I promise. Okay, ready? You’re going to….stick to your word. If the words “I will…..” come out of your mouth you will finish that sentence with an action associated to it. This habit will never let any excuse get in your way ever again. You say you’re going to your sister’s house for dinner Friday night? Guess what it’s Friday and you’re being lazy at home thinking I’ll see her later this week anyway. Sorry, nope. Maybe you can compromise with yourself and wear your PJ’s to dinner. This isn’t about letting other people down as much as it is letting yourself down. When you blow off something you say you were going to do your perception of yourself drops a bit lower. Now listen, there are a couple exceptions to the rule; An illness of you or a loved one, a death and things out of your control i.e. the plane you’re on gets stuck in Alaska. I say stuck because if it is just delayed you should let them know you’re going to be just a little late. This is the number one habit to have respect from other people and yourself. The last tip on this is if you don’t plan on doing it, simply, don’t say you will.
Habits are wonderful when they work on improving the quality of life you envision for yourself. We are the reality of our thoughts so if you imagine it for yourself, use the above mentioned steps to get you there!!!
HAPPY NEW YEARS EVERYONE!!
