How many of you are still keeping up with your 2021 New Year’s Resolution? It is easy to set lofty goals at the beginning of the year when there is a lot of motivation and drive to begin again. But following through is certainly harder because, in the thick of the grind, the motivation slowly fades away. During tougher days, most of us unconsciously quit and rather just maintain the status quo. We stop going to the gym. We stop eating healthy. We stop being financially disciplined.

Instead of blaming yourself for being not mentally strong enough, you should instead try to develop good habits. These habits once practiced over and over and over, become second nature to you. Here are some helpful tips that can hopefully guide you on how to get started on a new habit.

Let us set an example, everyone’s favorite: Losing weight.

Step 1. Start small. 

So you finally decided to change your lifestyle in order for you to lose those extra pounds. You booked a gym for six months, bought an entire week’s worth of healthy food, and set a playlist for your exercise sessions. Unfortunately, this kind of commitment, is too overwhelming and drastic as we would like to admit. We can’t just quit eating white rice or stop watching our favorite K-drama instead of going to the gym. Drastically changing our lives is very high risk. This is where we hit the proverbial wall. We try to change a lot of things too quickly it becomes too hard, and when the motivation runs out and our comforts take over, it all crashes down.

The key is to start small – small enough that you can’t say no. According to the bestselling book Atomic Habits, if you only improve 1% every day, you will eventually still end up with results that are 37 times better after one year. Like compounding interest, habits good or bad are very much the same. You did not gain all your extra weight overnight the same way you cannot lose all of it in a matter of days. So, a better approach would be not to go cold-turkey but make small changes that you can execute and improve 1% every day with laser-like consistency.

For example, start a simple exercise routine for five minutes every day, then build on it. The following week, increase your exercise time to 10 minutes until you feel comfortable enough to increase it again at your own pace. You only need to improve little by little to see compounded results by the end of the year.

Step 2. Focus on your systems.

One of the best advices I have read is from James Clear who said “You don’t rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your system.” The system being the small habits you begin to repeat and execute each day. Clear says that achieving a goal is only a momentary change. Let’s say you lose four pounds this week but lost zero the next week, chances are you are going to be disappointed and might be swayed with discouragement. The best way to address this is to not restrict your happiness only to when you are achieving goals, but to give yourself permission to be happy simply whenever you execute your designated habits or your “system”. Goals are there to give you a direction, but your system will give you your progress. Fall in love with the process.

Step 3.  Step outside of your Comfort Zone.

Forming good habits and having a strong mindset are always a good recipe for success. When habits fail, your will power can save the day. And when the will power is down, your habits and systems will carry you through. In the book “Can’t Hurt Me” by David Goggins, he says that the first step to developing a strong mental foundation or “a calloused mind” is to step outside your comfort zone on a regular basis. “Doing things that make you uncomfortable will help make you strong, the more often you get uncomfortable the stronger you’ll become, and soon you’ll develop a more productive, can-do dialogue with yourself in stressful situations” Goggins’ adds.

Now you can rethink the way you set your goals and resolutions. Develop an unbreakable system by creating good habits and forgetting bad ones. Start simple, focus on your system and develop mental toughness by stepping outside your comfort zone.

References:
Atomic Habits, James Clear
Can’t Hurt Me, David Goggins
The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg