Did you set a New Year’s resolution for 2023? If you did, and it’s going well, congratulations! Keep going and finish strong. However, if you find yourself struggling along the way, or if you’re not into New Year’s resolutions, I get it.
Many of us start out with great intentions. However, striving to lose the weight, become more decisive, or pursue other resolutions can quickly become tedious and even demotivating. It’s easy to give up and move on to something more urgent or inspiring.
Still, that underlying need for change remains. Perhaps losing a few pounds is necessary for health reasons. Or becoming more decisive will help you get unstuck in a professional situation. These needs go unaddressed when we give up. But why give up when there’s another way forward?
An Alternative to New Year’s Resolutions
I invite you to consider giving this month’s practices a try. You’ll begin with a 30-day practice to help you form (and maintain) positive habits using my 2-part blog, Scrap Your New Year’s Resolution. Then you’ll follow up with The Return for when the practice goes off the rails. It will at some point because no one’s practice is perfect. Yet, it can be helpful to prepare for this reality.
These blogs were published in 2020, but they’re just as relevant today. I’ve completed and witnessed hundreds of 30-day practices. For most of us, they are engaging and effective. I’ll break it down for you, below.
Scrap Your Resolution. Try this instead! – Part 1
In Part 1, you’ll start with a 30-day practice that helped me write my book. For me, getting engaged was easy, but staying engaged was hard. For you, it might be the reverse. You’ll see how my signature strengths helped me along the way, and how yours can help you, too!
Ready to get introduced (or re-introduced) to the 30-day practice?
Discover the Anatomy of a 30-Day Practice
Scrap Your Resolution. Try this instead! – Part 2
In Part 2, you’ll begin to understand why even small changes, like getting to bed 15 minutes earlier, can be difficult to achieve. There’s a brief description of how habit formation works in the brain, and why 30 days of repetition and a small amount of time are essential. Finally, you’ll set up your own 30-day practice and learn tips and tricks I picked up along the way.
Ready to create your own successful 30-day challenge?
Rise to the Challenge of Positive Habit Formation
The Return
Now comes the most important part: The Return. When priorities shift, you forget to practice, or you simply don’t feel up to it, rather than feeling defeated and giving up, try the return. When your practice gets interrupted, don’t give up – simply plan on returning the next day, or the day after that.
Sometimes the return is the practice.