Last updated 20 February 2020 ·
January has come. And gone again. By now, most of us have probably broken our New Year’s resolutions. Dry January became a bit soggy after 10 days. Veganuary gave way when your local restaurant did a Burger Night on the 20th. And the queues at the local gym are already getting shorter.
Maybe some of the new habits we agreed to start after a few beers on the 31st December were made in haste. They didn’t really matter to us. We weren’t really committed to them.
But what about the ones that really do matter? If you’ve set big business or personal goals for this year, are you sticking to the habits that are going to help you achieve them?
If you’re trying to get your team working more cohesively to achieve a big increase in growth, are you sticking to your schedule for weekly check-ins and monthly catchups? Or have you allowed some of them to be postponed? Have you made the 10 client calls per week you promised – or are you only doing five? Have you written a blog once a week – or did you miss a week because you were too busy doing other stuff?
If you’re targeting a big sporting event in the summer, are you sticking to your training schedule – or have you hit the snooze button when you were supposed to be out running? Are you sticking to your diet plan – or have you been sneaking into the snacks cupboard late at night?
Don’t beat yourself up
If this is you, the first thing is to notice it. Then, don’t beat yourself up over it. And most importantly, don’t give up. Just because you’ve had a bad day, don’t let that become a bad week, bad month or bad year. Just get back on track as soon as you can.
But before you restart your good habits and try to get them embedded, I think you need to really look hard at yourself and ask if they are really the right habits? Are they really important? It could be you gave up on them because they weren’t that critical in the first place. If that’s the case, then work out what the right habit is going to be that helps you hit your goals.
Once you’ve either reaffirmed your commitment to your new habits – or created new ones – then it’s vital to be consistent and allow these new behaviours to become the new normal. Consistency brings results.
This reminds me of another blog we’ve written which focuses specifically on one simple habit that will accelerate your results. It’s about self-discipline, and it’s the bedrock of forming the new habits that enable you to smash your targets. Have a look at the piece again and the three steps to being self-disciplined and forming new habits that stick for good.
When you’ve done that, let me give you one final tip. Put in a calendar entry for one month from today that says “Habits check in”. It’ll be a nice reminder for you to check in with yourself and help stay on track throughout the year.
January might have been a good month or a bad month for you. Whichever it is, let’s make sure 2020 as a whole is a fantastic year.
Stay on track guys.
