Flourish Health & Wellbeing Magazine - Dec23 - Flipbook - Page 12
How to keep your
New Year's resolutions
So, how can we buck the trend this year?
Here’s some prac琀椀cal advice that can help you
achieve your New Year goals:
1.
2.
3.
Be realistic
Be specific
So many New Year’s resolu琀椀ons
are di昀케cult to achieve from the
outset. A big sweeping pledge
like “I’m going to run 10
kilometres every weekend”
when you don’t like running is
unlikely to come to fruition.
Instead, pick an activity you do
enjoy, like taking long walks
while listening to music, and
shape your goal around this.
Using the walking analogy,
simply aiming to “walk more” or
“walk further” means there’s no
tangible goal for you to reach.
According to the book ‘Atomic
Habits’ by James Clear, a simple
way to apply a winning strategy
to your habits is to 昀椀ll out this
sentence: I will [BEHAVIOUR]
at [TIME] in [LOCATION]”.
Link your
resolution to a habit
you already have
Another powerful way to
successfully adopt a new set of
habits is to link a new behaviour
to an exis琀椀ng one. For example,
note that the previous example
was walking while listening to
music. By mixing music listening
(something you’re likely to get
a dopamine burst from) with
walking (something you’re less
likely to do on a regular basis)
you’re more likely to achieve
your goal.