Kicking off the new year on the right foot when you're motivated
is easy. But how do you maintain new healthy habits when your resolve starts to
fade?
There are two things many of us have at the start of a new year:
great ideas for healthy change and plenty of motivation.
The problem with motivation is that it disappears quite quickly.
So whether you're trying to quit smoking or start meditating daily, how can you
make your resolutions last beyond the second week of January?
"If we really want to change we need to figure out a way to
keep doing the things that are required even when we don't feel like it or
we're not excited about it," says personal development speaker Craig
Harper.
And the solution lies in... teeth cleaning.
Think about it, says Harper, very few of us would ever break
this habit.
Cleaning our teeth every morning is a non-negotiable behaviour
that most of us do without even thinking, and it's this mindset we need when
trying to foster any new habit.
Time to act
As Harper points out, despite being a nation that is
well-educated and well-resourced in the areas of exercise and nutrition we are
still one of the fattest, with 61% of us considered overweight.
"So, clearly, knowledge doesn't necessarily equal
transformation. Change is in the application," he says.
The first step in applying ourselves is to accept that with
change comes discomfort.
For example, trying to lose weight requires hard work and
becomes uncomfortable for many of us when we have to get out of bed early to go
for a walk or say no to that slice of chocolate cake.
By accepting from the outset that we are going to stumble upon
these hurdles we can better prepare ourselves by setting individual,
non-negotiable rules and just sticking to them.
Work around the obstacles
On the other hand, we shouldn't invest energy and time fighting
those things we can't change. Instead, we need to find ways to work with them.
This means asking yourself better questions, explains Harper.
If, for example, you are middle-aged and have back problems that
make exercise difficult, don't just become a couch potato.
Instead, ask yourself, 'With my genetics and at my age, what is
the best way for me to get fit and improve my energy levels?'
Just as we can't change our genetics, we can't always change our
personality or the biological drives that may affect how easily or quickly we
change our habits, says Dr Sarah Edelman, a clinical psychologist practising in
Sydney.
"There are biological drives that cause some people to be
prone to alcohol dependency and addiction that other people don't have... so
for those people it just means they will have to work harder than someone who
just enjoys a drink, for example," says Edelman.
The science behind changing behaviours
No one magic formula works for changing every habit – depending
on what you are trying to achieve, different approaches and expectations will
be required.
For example, flossing your teeth daily is going to be easier and
take less time than stopping a lifetime pattern of angry outbursts.
The claim that it takes 30 days to change a habit oversimplifies
the issue, says Edelman.
Research published in the European Journal of Social
Psychology found that it can take 18 to 254 days for behaviours to become
automatic when performed repetitively.
The good news is that missing the occasional day didn't affect
the process, the researchers found.
Another study shows that although changing a behaviour
can take a lot of effort to begin with, it does become more automatic and
therefore easier over time.
And once we form a habit, even if we stop it, it will be easier
to reintroduce next time round because patterns in the brain that were formed
when we established the habit quickly re-emerge, according to US researchers who
examined behaviour in rats.
On the flip side, this is also true for bad habits.
So if you want to make your resolutions stick, here are some
golden rules to developing healthy habits:
- Don't try to change too much at
once. Focus on just one or two new habits at a time.
- Be clear about your goals. If
your goal is to be successful, define what success actually means to you.
- Turn motivation into commitment
by being better informed. Having a strong rationale for doing something is
better than having a general recommendation or just telling yourself, 'I
really must do that'.
- Focus on why you are trying to
change. Know the benefits of changing, and the consequences or costs of
not.
- Make time for your new habits.
Get up an hour earlier if you intend to fit exercise into your schedule,
or give yourself time to walk to the train station instead of driving.
- Finish what you start. Don't be
the person who perpetually starts but never finishes. Set yourself some
non-negotiable rules around the new habit or behaviour.
- Create an accountability
system. Keep a diary, get a training buddy or accountability partner such
as a friend, psychologist, dietician or anyone who will help you stay
focused.
- Get regular reinforcement
through reminder systems, visual cues such as photographs and by talking
to others about your goals.
- Ask better questions of
yourself to get better results, i.e. 'With my genetics, what's the best
diet for me?'
- Monitor your progress. This can
be through your diary, regular records of your activities, etc.
This article was written by Pamela Wilson, Source: http://www.abc.net.au/health/thepulse/stories/2012/01/11/3404594.htm
