Her Campus at U Ottawa acknowledges that we are located on the stolen and unsurrendered land of the Algonquin people.
With the new year, a fresh start inspires people to do what they haven’t done in the previous year: improve themselves. Whether that means trying harder in school or work, exercising, or eating healthier, a lot of goals are made on January 1st and promptly discarded after a few weeks. I’m guilty of this, and you or someone you know has probably done this, too. But have no shame! Instead, it’s time to be realistic and actually set goals that you can achieve this year. Here are some tips to help with this task so that when it’s time to set your goals for the year, you don’t find yourself writing the same goal over and over again.
Be Specific
This is a common mistake people make when setting goals. Often goals sound more along the lines of “exercise regularly” or “eat more healthy foods.” With these types of goals, it’s hard to know if you’ve succeeded or not because there’s no real way to measure your progress. Instead, research has shown that being more specific about what you want to achieve can make this task easier. Try something more along the lines of “exercise three times a week.” For me, scrolling on social media is something I want to do less this year. So instead of saying “use social media less,” I can say “limit social media use to one hour per day.”
Start with something small and build your way up
We get very excited and are highly motivated when we start forming our habits, and then this motivation slowly fizzles out and we’re left in the same spot we started. To combat that, it’s recommended you start small. Starting with something simple and then building your way up will make it easier to stick to this habit. For example, you might start off with short gym sessions or fewer sessions per week, and then progressively add more until you reach your desired goal. In my case, I could start by cutting my social media use by one hour each day and then slowly lower that allowed time until it’s only one hour total daily.
Have Fun
Even though building these habits might not sound like the most fun, it’ll make things a lot easier if you’re actually enjoying what you’re doing. If you have to force yourself to go to the gym because you think running on the treadmill is the only way to get healthier, then it’s likely you’ll find different excuses to not go to the gym. On the contrary, if you do something you enjoy like swimming, then you’re more likely to enjoy your gym session and look forward to doing it. In my case, maybe I’ll replace the time I would scroll on social media with reading a fun book, chatting with friends, or even watching a show.
Reward yourself
Who doesn’t like rewards, right? Rewards are also important when you’re trying to form a new habit. For certain things, like if you’re trying to add flossing to your dental routine, the reward is instant—you’ll have cleaner teeth. But most habits have results that are not as easily seen—like when you want to eat more healthily to improve your health. You won’t see results on your first or second day; you’ll have to wait a long time for results to show. So it would make habit-building easier if you could have some immediate rewards for these types of habits. For example, including your favourite music or cute workout clothes into a workout session. For my example, I might replace social media with an enjoyable activity like reading a book, which will be rewarding since I’m reading a fun book!
This is by no means a comprehensible guide to building a new habit, but it is a start. I will definitely be using some of these tips when setting my goals for 2023, and whenever I decide on starting a new habit. I hope you find these helpful in your own pursuit!