Resolution to Habit
Hugo from the Marketing team talks about how to turn new year into new you.
I’ve never been very good at new year’s resolutions, as a veteran apathist I find it as difficult as the next person to motivate myself and stick to good intentions.
I have had some success though. Here’s how I did it.
I am a cyclist.
I ride my bike to work come rain, snow, wind, hell or high water. What started as a resolution has kept me active. In fact in the two years since I made this resolution, the longest periods I have gone without riding my bike were the two Christmas holidays.
I sometimes swim.
At the same time as my concerted effort to cycle more, I resolved myself to swim at least once a week. This resolution has never been as successful. No matter the good intention, there’s always been something that I allow to get in the way. I haven’t been down the pool in months.
Granted, one is how I get to work every day, and the other is an extra activity to fit into the week, but the main difference is that one became habit, and the other was never more than an intention.
Once a resolution becomes a habit, two things happen.
1. It becomes a part of what defines you and becomes much harder to break.
2. A habit requires no active thought, and so doesn’t require will power.
Last year I gave up coca cola and take away meals.
Though that wording is misleading, it should be I became a person who does not drink coca cola or eats take away.
I used what I had learned from the cycling and the swimming the year before and applied it last year. When temptation hit I’d say to myself that “I’m a person that doesn’t drink coke” or “I used to eat take away but I don’t anymore”.
And this seems to work better than convincing myself that “I am giving up coke or takeaways.”
Framing the resolution in terms of personal traits, for me at least, has helped me to keep honest to the resolutions.
2017 is now here and I still am a cyclist who doesn’t drink coke or eat take away.
Now to work out who I’ll be by 2018, until then some advice from a fictional character: “Once you have a good excuse, you open the door to bad excuses.” Sam Vimes (Commander of the Ankh Morpork City Watch).
