Boss your New Year's Resolutions and Achieve your 2021 Goals

It's that time of the year again when we're all diving deep into New Year Resolutions! This can be one of the most fun times of January but what would it mean for you if you could actually stick to your goals this year, instead of giving up by the end of the month? Addictive Behaviour experts Kate Baily and Mandy Manners are using their knowledge of helping overcome negative behaviour to get you "addicted" to healthy habits this year. Read on!

 Psssst… Wanna know a secret? We want to give you a few tips and tools to boss your New Year goals or resolutions. 

How many times have we made and broken our resolutions within weeks or even days ? The ener-gy of new year can be infectious. We are full of best intentions and blue sky thinking about what we can achieve, from climbing Machu Picchu to launching a business, writing a book or quitting a bad habit like smoking or overspending. 

It’s a bit like the NY is a runner’s starting block. We start off great and may clear the first couple of hurdles but by the third or fourth we are starting to flag. 

So how can we ensure we put our best foot forward, boss our pace and finish the race we started? With our TEN KEYS you can UNLOCK YOUR SUCCESS with the science of habit change!

1) Get clear on the goal

We know about this in coaching- it’s a SMART goal. What does success really look like? How are we measuring it? How will we know when we have achieved it?
Brain-storm, journal, get a Pinterest board together- whatever your learning preference,  so you can feel it, see it and sense it. 

2) Boss your morning and evening routine

In the morning, set the intention, renew the intention and have space to yourself to begin each day intentionally. At the end of the day, set apart time to reflect on what went well and what you would change. Make a daily action plan:

3) Know the first step you need to take

STEP ONE. Start small. Remember in GROW when we ask, what’s the first step, to move us on one point? Then commit to doing that. If you want to run a marathon, it could be downloading Couch to 5K and doing that first of all. 

4) Make STEP ONE attractive

Get some good running music, new trainers, write down all the benefits of doing this step and how it relates to your goal. 

5) Make STEP ONE obvious

Tell people you are doing it, put pictures of running on your fridge, write reminders to yourself. Make your intention visible can really help to remind you to do it. 

6) Make STEP ONE easy

Leave your running gear out so you can grab it and go. 

7) Make STEP ONE satisfying

Give yourself a delicious coffee break, buy yourself with some bath salts to relax in or do something that is a reward for you to acknowledge your effort. 

8) Get support

There is nothing like the power of a group to keep you going, to celebrate the wins and share the lows and cheer you on. We are profoundly pro-social and being seen by others is a powerball of motivation. 

9) Watch your pace

Often we get tripped up by expecting ourselves to do things too quickly, so we think we are ‘setting ourselves up to fail’ or setting the bar too high when in fact it’s just that our timing is out and so we get demoralised and give up.
It just takes a bit longer than expected. So by making our steps small and sustainable we can be in it to win it for the long haul. 

10) Repetition, repetition, repetition

Rinse and repeat until this new ‘resolution’ becomes a good habit - it will become automatic with daily repetition and free up your incredible brain to focus on the next steps or even bigger and better goals. Keep going! 

The article was written by Kate Baily & Mandy Manners of LoveSober and adapted from James Clear’s book ‘Atomic Habits.’
If you wish to read more strategies & tips about habits, visit their article 'Why Addictive Behaviours Coaching and why now?' plus watch them speak live about this fascinating avenue of coaching in our free-to-view Coaching Conversations.

Want to learn more from these Addictive Behaviours experts? Maybe take the first step towards becoming a Specialist Addictive Behaviours Coach?

Join us for our Addictive Behaviours Coaching Programme Taster session 10 am-12:00 pm on the 11th January 2021 for this live, interactive, virtual training. 

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