I can almost guarantee that whatever New Year’s resolution you set is long forgotten at this time of the month. You shouldn’t feel bad about yourself, because it happens to just about everyone. Diet plans, side job searches, and even budgeting are all common resolutions that are abandoned within the first few weeks of January.
It’s mainly due to the sustainability of what you’re doing. If the new diet plan that you are trying doesn’t let you have any carbs for three months, it might not be easy to maintain. And that’s okay! You shouldn’t feel ashamed to adjust a plan you started so that you can continue pursuing your goals. There may even be a better way to chase your dreams, where you don’t have to form new resolutions, but “tweak” your old habits instead.
The keys are to recognize the cue and routine, start slow, and make the habit fairly low effort in the beginning. If you want to start exercising more, it will be more sustainable to add just a few minutes of movement into your day and gradually increase your routine when you see rewards. The cue is also important because if you know that you fall into a Netflix binge after class, you can start to use that cue to your advantage. After class, instead of pressing play on your next Shameless episode, recognize the signal and divert your energy elsewhere. So, to summarize, start small and bring changes about gradually.
Even if you want to get better grades, you can use a certain cue, such as a Tik Tok notification that usually sends you into a spiral. Instead, use this as an alarm to study for five minutes. A short-term reward could be checking that notification, and a long-term reward could be improved study habits and grades. Once you start noticing your habits, it’s easy to find the cues that cause them, and a simple tweak of your routine after the cue can start giving you new, beneficial habits.
