The 8 Laws of Resolution Success

By: Renna Fir

Welcome to 2020!

I would like to congratulate you on emerging from 2019 exactly where you need to be. 2020 is a year filled with abundant opportunities to manifest fitness goals, bucket lists, and personal growth into reality!

In today’s fast paced society we are faced with more hindrances than ever when it comes to making time to work out, cook wholesome meals or for the long forgotten creative project lost in a box someplace. Out of the 95% of Americans who make new year’s resolutions, 85% of those people drop them by February. If you are a part of that majority who can’t seem to make your resolutions stick each year, then this article is for you! I have distilled the findings from habit and goal researchers to develop The 8 laws to New Year Resolution Success. If you apply the information in this post to your 2020 goals, you will certainly see them manifest into reality!

1. Line Up With Your Values

What separates people who succeed with their goals from those who don’t is motivation. We find our greatest sense of motivation when we have a sense of autonomy which is at its highest point when our goals lines up with our personal values. Take a look at your resolutions for resonance with the things you truly believe in, that bring you inspiration and purpose. Scrutinize the areas of your resolutions that reflect the values of your parents, your partner or your social code. Don’t hesitate to adjust your resolutions for success, your goals need to completely align with YOU!

2. Find your edge

Speaking of motivation, resolutions are statistically more achievable when they are challenging, but not too challenging. Resolutions that fail are the ones who have either set goals that are too difficult or not difficult enough. We need to have something worth fighting for and at the same time it needs to be within reach. “The intensity of our emotions are met with the difficulty of the goal” (Houston). Find your edge for resolution challenge but be careful not to make them too hard, or your psyche will probably give up all together.

3. Create resolutions that are specific and measurable

The psychology of habit-formation explains that successful resolutions comes from a clear plan of action If your resolutions sound anything like ‘getting in shape’, ‘become financially stable’ or ‘have more family time’, your heart is in the right place, but your goals are too vague and ambiguous and are in need of some refinement. As Gardner states, overgeneralizing and creating vague goals leaves us without a plan and an unachievable aim. Make specific and measurable goals like, I want to lose 20% body fat within the first 6 months of the year, or I want to have paid 10% of my student debt by July, or I want to spend 2 full days a week with my family for the whole year. Notice how possible resolutions become when they are specific and measurable. You can easily break these goals into a day by day plan, which leads to the next law: Breaking your resolutions into small actions that will become automatic.

4. Automate your resolutions

Now that you’ve generated your goals that line up with your values, have just enough challenge, and are specific and measurable, it’s time to break it down into simple daily actions that will bring you closer to your goal. What this does is it habituates your resolution, removing it from conscious motivation and moving it toward being “automatic and effortless.” You can automate your resolution in a four step process from the psychology of habit-formation:

Ie. Ie. To lose 20% body fat within 6 months, I am going to work out with the most effective amount of intensity every morning before breakfast. I am not recommending you work out with the same intensity every day.

I am not recommending you work out with the same intensity every day.

Establishing an exercise routine with climbing and declining intensity with rest days between will result in weight loss success exercise sustainability amongst numerous other benefits to your life. The 4 Day Wave is a tool that has changed the lives of hundreds of people and you can download the 4 Day Wave guide to bring your exercise routine into flow this year!

5. Be incredibly Consistent

One of my greatest weaknesses with new habits is that I get bored with routines. Gardner’s research emphasizes the importance of not giving into the impulse to spice up your newly formed habit automation. If your goal is to lose 20% body fat by exercising every morning before breakfast and 3 weeks in, boredom sinks in and you try to shift it to exercising in the afternoon , it will set you back to the stage of conscious motivation losing all the automation you worked so hard for. This will require more energy to develop the desired habit, deterring the development of automatic behavior development. Boredom, like negative thinking, is a mental pattern that sabotages positive behavior change.

6. Stay Positive

Thinking positively results in positive outcomes but has anyone ever explained why? This morning I was in a Steel Mace Flow class and someone in the class defined their goal for class as “I want to not get hurt.” From a psychological perspective, wanting to not do something is far more challenging than aiming for what you want to do. Just think about all the times you’ve told yourself to stop doing something and how it just made you want it more., That is because it is impossible to develop a habit to not do something. It is much easier to develop new habits than it is to destroy old ones so shift your focus to what goal oriented actions, tendencies and behaviors you’d like to see showing up for you. Notice when you are engaging in a behavior that keeps you from your goal, ie. over indulging in a tub of ice cream on a regular basis and replace it with a new one, like enjoying a single serving of ice cream once or twice a month and when you feel that impulse to eat a tub of ice cream...take a nap. To learn about the connection between sleep and overeating, click here. By all means, be patient with yourself. Habit and behavior change takes time.

7. Be Patient

Be realistic with the timeframe required for new habit formation. There have been various myths of new habits being formed in 21s or 30 days. Research has shown that it takes on average around 66 days of daily performance of a behavior before it becomes second nature. As time progresses, it will get easier to continue the habitual behavior and by 2-3 months, it will become second nature. So please don’t give up on yourself after a few weeks when you’re still struggling to get to the gym or be more conscious of your bank account. Stay consistent in the first 6 laws of resolution success and if you believe in yourself, in 10 weeks time, you will have success!

8. Believe in the Power of YOU!

Take ownership over the outcomes of your life. The perception that the outcomes of our lives are externally influenced, removes the level of control we feel we have and accomplishing goals becomes less achievable. When we think positively about our future, shifting into an internal locus of control, we believe that our success is a result of our actions, and the motivation to reach our goals increase. People who believe in themselves are more likely to achieve their goals. Please don’t forget what I feel is the most important law in this post, and that is YOU are in control of your reality.

Conclusion

May this year be everything you hope it to be and more! Don’t forget your power and at the same time, always remember to reach out for support from your friends, family and community. If you want to lock in your resolution this year, schedule an accountability consultation at Flow Shala by clicking here where hundreds of people are meeting their goals through online and in house accountability coaching through a data backed program that is praised by its members from the program’s high success rates.

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” - Pablo Picasso

Resources

Making health habitual: the psychology of 'habit-formation' and general practice Gardner B, Lally P, Wardle J. Making health habitual: the psychology of 'habit-formation' and general practice. Br J Gen Pract. 2012;62(605):664–666. doi:10.3399/bjgp12X659466

What is Goal Setting and How to Do it Well Houston, E. (2019, November 20). What is Goal Setting and How to Do it Well. Retrieved January 2, 2020, from https://positivepsychology.com/goal-setting/.

Why Skimping on Sleep Each Night Can Cause a Case of the Munchies. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.sleepfoundation.org/articles/connection-between-sleep-and-overeating

Creating a SMART Goal, your guide to goal setting https://creately.com/blog/diagrams/goal-setting-process/.