2024 New Years Resolutions
The Truth About New Year Resolutions:
Did you know that around 80% of people forget about their New Year’s resolutions by February, with only 9- 12% of people continuing on their resolutions? Many people say that they will do something but never actually do it, many people look for some magical things that allow them to do everything they have ever wanted but the truth is, New Year’s resolutions or any long-forming goals take discipline. However, we have some tips that allow you to increase the likelihood of your new habits sticking (these are all from an amazing book called Atomic Habits By James Clear & I highly recommend you read this book).
Choosing a New Years Resolution:
Choosing New years resolutions can be a somewhat difficult process as it requires you to delve deep into yourself and find what you want to change, there’s one way that I like to find out my New years resolutions and it’s a great way for you to do so as well, but first, let me introduce you to the concept of SMART goals. If you haven’t come across this before SMART goals is an acronym that I learned in college, admittedly while I was learning it I didn’t think it would be much help to me and yet here we are. The acronym means S – Specific, M – Measurable A – Attainable, R – Reachable and T – Timely. This acronym allows you to see how whether or not your goals are realistic or not, it’s a great way of breaking up your goals into smaller manageable chunks.
Now onto the method of how to find your resolutions…
Finding your resolutions:
This method has allowed many people to identify their short-term goals(SMART) and their long-term goals and helped many people get to know themselves in the process. All you’ll need for this process is a notebook and pen, yourself, and a dark room where no one will distract you. All you do is sit in the darkroom by yourself with nothing but your thoughts and picture the life you want to have in (let’s say 10 years) the car you drive, what clothes you wear, etc. After you have done this you now take that pen and paper and write down as much of it as you can remember from what you look like to how you act around others (write down any quality that the future you had that you don’t currently), now come the fun part. Now you have your long-term goals, it’s time to break them down into SMART goals. Once you have broken it down into SMART goals you can then begin to put the habits in place and begin your journey to a greater you.
The Team Resolutions:
In this section, the team will share some of their resolutions with you, as well as the reasons why and how they will achieve them.
Aaron – Support Director:
Aaron’s New Year resolution is to clear himself of debt, here’s a little from him:
Chris – Managing Director:
Chris’s New Year resolution all revolves around learning more, here’s a little from him:
In Chris’s year of learning he’s going to:
Emma – Customer Service Director:
Emma’s New Year resolution is all about getting in shape, here’s a little from her:
I’m going to do this to keep my muscles moving so I can keep the arthritis in check and make me feel better about myself. I will achieve this by going to exercise classes and having a home exercise routine too, eating better and having clear and reachable goals.
Mikey – Marketing Director:
Mikey’s New Year’s resolution revolves around improving himself and becoming a better version of himself, here’s a little from him:
2024 is the Chinese Year of the Dragon (The meaning of my surname in Japanese), I decided that this would be my year, the year that I finally actually do something with my life rather than play video games every chance I get. For me this year will be a year of change and improvement. Throughout the year I will be implementing many different habit loops and trying to break old habits.
This Year I will:
- Continue Learning Japanese – Goal: I want to be able to Pass the JLPT N5 Exam by the end of the year
- Start Learning Korean – My little sister is also learning it so I thought it would be a good bonding to be able to learn alongside her – Goal: to be able to have small conversations with my little sister in Korean.
- Waking up at 6:00 am every day rather than dragging myself out of bed just before 9:oo am – Goal: I want to wake up earlier so I can start my day
- Work Out Daily – Goal: Be stronger and more healthy “healthy body, healthy mind”
- Learn More about Japan/ Japanese Philosophy – For a long time Miyamoto Musashi (a great samurai and philosopher) has greatly increased me and I wish to learn more and apply his knowledge to modern-day life – Goal: To become more aware of myself and my actions.
- Continue With Martial Arts (Tae Kwon Do, Bojustsu, Iaido, Kenjutsu) – Goal: This is to increase my self-confidence but to also become a better person and understand myself more.
- To Learn to Cook more Oriental food (Japanese, Chinese, and Korean) – Goal: To be able to cook meals when I want to.
The Habit Tricks:
Tip 1#: Habit Tracker
The Habit tracker can be a power habit tool that is used by many things in the modern world (a prime example of this is Duolingo) with a tracker it will allow you to keep track of how you’re doing and it will also increase the likelihood of you continuing your habit. The tracker allows you to see progress as not everything has a visual way of tracking progress so a tracker allows you to see just how you doing and is more likely to continue as you “can see” progress and your mind won’t want to ruin that momentum.
Tip 2#: Accountability Contract
An accountability contract is an amazing tool to have when trying to build new habits. An example of a habit contract would be you were to give your friend £50 every time you fail to stick to a habit, this will increase your likelihood of completing a habit as your brain knows that there is a direct cost to your actions whereas without a contract the damage done from doing your normal routine is unclear and delayed.
Tip 3#: Make your old habits harder
This tip allows you to insensitively make the habits that you don’t want to do just a few seconds harder than the habit you want to do. Let’s say that you come home from work every day and instantly put the TV on and the next time you check the time it’s 9 pm. A way that you can make this harder is by taking the battery out of the remote and putting it in a separate room, leaving your new habit like a book or weight in the place around where your old habit takes place.
Tip 4#: Replace the Action, not the Habit – From Steven Bartlett’s Book (The Diary of a CEO)
(name of Person) was a smoker and he realised that every time he got into his car he would reach into the glove box take a cigarette out and smoke which would eventually hurt his health. In this example, the Car is the (prompt), grabbing the cigarette is the action and the smoking is the result. This is known as a habit loop, and it’s everywhere another example is when you sit at your desk(Prompt) Turn Your PC on(Action) and start playing games(Result). In this example (name) replaces the cigarettes with a packet of lollipops. Now this is what the habit loop looks like: getting in the car (prompt) grabbing the packet of lollipops (action) eating a lollypop (action) by changing the action inside of a habit loop you simply decrease the stress of forming a new habit loop by using and existing one.
Tip 5#: Write a Kaizen List (My Tip)
Kaizen is a Japanese business philosophy meaning “continuous improvement” Implementing this into habits is a highly beneficial process so let me explain. At the end of every day, you grab a notebook and a pen and write down everything that you did on that day from start to finish (including the habit loops that you implemented). Now have a look at that and assess your day did everything go as planned? Were you as efficient as you wanted to be? Where can you improve? this now allows you to tweak your habit loops to continuously improve your day.
