Hijack Your Resolutions

Have you made any New Year’s resolutions about your lifestyle habits? The kind where you say, “I resolve to eat better / get quality sleep / etc.”

I have. And I’ve noticed that almost all these resolutions come down to willpower. I don’t know about you, but I find it incredibly hard to simply will myself to change a habit, even when it’s a terrible habit.

But I read something recently that gives me hope--and a methodology.

Science tells us that we develop habits when we allow our environment to support our choices, repeatedly, until they become habitual. An obvious example is keeping junk food in the house, which supports poor eating.

So to adopt a new habit, one thing I can do is hijack my environment. Figure out how to make it support the habit I do want. If I don’t want to eat junk food, how can I set up my environment to support healthy eating? If I want to save money, how can I set it up to support less spending and more saving? If I want to listen more to my spouse, how can I set it up to support quality communication?

I’ve only just started this process, and I’m learning that there are limits on how far I’m willing to go to change my environment. Remove the TV from the house? Cut up the credit cards? It’s an interesting personal journey.

If this idea appeals to you, then I wish you good luck in hijacking your environment for the habits you want in 2021.