Happy New Year!
It’s the time where the majority of society sets new goals to “reinvent” or “re-align” themselves in the New Year. Yet more often than not, many have a track record of failing to consistently work towards those goals after January, where the desire to relieve the pressure and stress surrounding those new goals outweighs the desire to work towards them. The struggle people experience in staying committed to their goals generally has nothing to do with the goal one set, but has everything to do with the lack of daily habits and a mindset that’s focused on instant gratification, not performance.
New Year’s Resolutions can be dangerous if one doesn’t create a sustainable action plan of daily habits. Daily habits help one work towards their goal 1% at a time, which aggregates gains over time and makes the work sustainable throughout the year. In choosing your daily habits, think of an activity or activities that will bring you closer to your goal that you can perform a minimum of 5 days a week for a minimum of 15 minutes. That’s it. If you spend just 15 minutes 5-7 days a week working towards your goal, you will make progress each day towards that goal, 1% at a time.
Here’s a snapshot of my 2022 goals with my habits:
- Consistently prioritize my health, especially during the audit busy season.
- Drink 1 Gallon of Water per day
- Consistently take vitamins each day
- CrossFit 4x a week
- Core Strength routine each weekday morning (takes 90 seconds)
- Consistently journal once a week to acknowledge, work through, and release emotions for at least 10 minutes
- Consistently prioritize building my business
- Each weekday morning, read 5 minutes and spend 10 minutes writing so you can publish articles monthly.
- Spend 15 minutes each Saturday creating content at the gym to post on social media weekly.
- Post busy season, spend 15 minutes each Sunday learning how to code.
Note: All of these habits take 15 minutes or less besides CrossFit workouts, and I’ve spread out my weekday habits from my weekend habits. My priority is my health and building my personal business as I adjust to working overtime during the audit busy season. Always start small and focus on consistency.
It’s also important to know your why. Why is this goal important to you? What’s your drive to complete your daily habits? Be clear about your why and write it down in a statement, so you can look back at it when you need extra motivation on tough days. It may help to turn your goals or make your whys based on the identity you want to create for yourself, which is how I script my why.
Here’s my Why: I am creating the Woman I want to become and the Lifestyle I desire today.
As you work towards your goal(s), it’s important to note that we as humans seek instant gratification, which plays a role in the ease of giving up on work when we don’t see the instant results or huge progress in one month. Becoming the person you want and creating the lifestyle you want takes time. It will not happen in one month. It will not happen in 2 months, in 3 months, etc. Be mindful when you get frustrated about not seeing those results and recognize that instant gratification mindset, and work to shift it. How I shift my mindset is by recognizing the 1% progress I’ve made, whether it’s focused on the consistency of completing my daily habits or the 1% progress I’ve noticed in my performance, mindset, or health. Sometimes, I just need to repeat the mantra “I am making progress 1% at a time”. Be aware of the instant gratification mindset and find what works to shift it.
If you’re reading this anytime after the month of January and you are feeling guilty about not sticking to your goal(s), I want you to understand that you do not have to wait until the next New Year to restart your goal(s) or set new goal(s) and start working towards them. You can do this at any point during the year, at any point in your life. Reset your goal(s), create daily habits that accumulate to a minimum of 1% of your time each day (just 15 minutes), and work to shift your mindset to focus on performance over time versus instant gratification. There’s no better day than the present to start becoming the person you want to be.
Benson's Lifestyle 