Build Habits First to Get to Your End Goal

Soon enough New Year’s will be right around the corner and many of us will set a big lofty goal for the New Year. Some of us might want to lose weight, others might want to qualify for the Boston Marathon, complete a big backpacking traverse or start a new hobby. These are all great ideas and one of the best ways to meet your lofty goal is to focus on developing habits rather than setting a specific goal.

Why not just focus on the goal? There are a couple challenges with goal setting. One, oftentimes a goal is a lofty vision of where you want to be in the future and without any real data points that the goal is based on. It’s really easy to say I want to lose 50lbs in the next 4 months, but how did you come up with that number. Secondly, many people pin their success and happiness to a lofting distant future state and it doesn’t acknowledge that you successful and whole now. Third, goals often create a yo-yo effect where you train really hard, meet your goal, and then fall off the bandwagon.

 Here are 5 Steps to creating Habits that can Transform You

1.    Tie it to an existing habit. For example, let’s say you want to start a daily mediation practice. One habit that just about everyone does and if you don’t you should really start doing is brushing your teeth! You can start by cutting out a two minute chunk of time each morning right after brushing your teeth to sit and mediate.

2.    Make it a Daily Routine and Your Identity. It’s much easier to be more consistent and cut out any decisions making by creating a daily habit out of you new goal. If weight loss is your goal make sure you set aside a daily exercise routine that will keep you on task and consistent. You can still have rest days but make it active recovery such as a light spin around the lake. This will develop your identity as a person that is active and healthy.

3.    Ease Into Intensity and Volume. Let’s face it we all have crazy busy lives. Oftentimes, we add too much too quickly and overwhelm ourselves or get injured. Sometimes, it’s hard to build up slow because we are excited about our new endeavor, but it’s important to maintain steady progress so we don’t overdo it.

4.    Start Before You’re Ready. Learn to accept and embrace the fact that you will never be fully ready to start anything new. We are really good at making excuses and telling ourselves that I’ll start training once I get this house project done or once the kids go back to school. However, the plate will never be clear enough so we need to just commit to starting now.

5.    Do it with a buddy! Starting a habit with a new friend creates accountability and you have a personal cheerleader to keep you motivated when you feel tired or when the weather is crappy. It’s always more fun when you have someone to share success with too!