4 minute read
Why the Spring is an Ideal Time to Renew Your Goals
WORDS: Nathalie Le Mottee MD, Healthhaus
Research shows that 80% of people give up on their New Year's resolutions by the 2nd week of February! If this is you then don’t be downhearted, the Spring is the perfect time to revisit and renew your goals. For me the thought of a new season and lighter days puts me in a really positive mood and makes it the perfect time to reassess what I really want for myself.
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Tony Robbins recently said: “What most people call ‘resolutions’ are really just desires . . . they wish would happen. The majority of people aren't actually resolving anything within themselves.” This is certainly true as it’s all too easy to become swept up in the excitement of New Year’s resolutions and to set yourself a list of well intentioned but unrealistic goals. Once we realise that achieving these goals often requires enormous amounts of effort, they soon start to become not so important to us unless we are 100% clear about WHY we want to achieve them.
Another reason that we fall off the wagon is that we are often told it only takes 21 days to form a new habit. We’re positive that we can dedicate ourselves to doing something (or not doing something) for 21 days and voila, our lives will have changed. But it’s not that straightforward and we become disillusioned when it doesn’t happen.
So where did this notion that we would form new habits after only 21 days come from?
This theory became common thinking in the 1950s when a plastic surgeon called Maxwell Maltz began to notice a pattern in the length of time that his patients stopped sensing a phantom limb or got used to seeing their new nose. He did some more research and wrote: “These, and many other commonly observed phenomena tend to show that it requires a minimum of about 21 days for an old mental image to dissolve and a new one to jell.”
Maltz’s work influenced many leading professionals from life coaches to motivational speakers, however what ensued was a game of Chinese whispers until at some point the public was being told that they could form a new habit in only 21 days! The truth is that Maltz said this was the minimum time required and lifelong habits can take months even years to develop.
On a positive note our brains are capable of change – neural connections can be strengthened and new connections made. The ability of our brain to change (for better or for worse) is called neuroplasticity. Our brains are most ‘plastic’ in our childhood, however we don’t lose this plasticity and with a little perseverance we can change at any age – it’s never too late.
My practical tips
The key to making these changes is to make them easy and I mean really easy. So easy in fact that you’d feel slightly silly if you didn’t achieve it.
Pick up a pen and paper and do the following. Are you ready?
• Start by writing all of your goals down, no matter how wild and wonderful they may seem.
• Now pick just one goal. If you’ve struggled with achieving your goals in the past then pick the easiest one.
• Think of one positive change that you could easily make to start you on your way to achieving your goal. The reason I say positive change is that it is far easier to start doing something new than it is to stop doing something that you have done for years.
• Now make that positive change really, really simple. It could be to drink a glass of water as soon as you get up or to extend your walk back to your car after work by 10 minutes.
• Decide on a way to keep a record of your achievements. This is essential as the old adage says ‘if you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it’. A small note book that you can carry around will do or try an app.
Some of my favourites are: Waterlogged – this helps you track how much water you’ve drunk over the day. I use the free version, but you can pay for upgrades.
Active 10 – a free app that quite simply tracks the length of time you walk ‘briskly’ over the day. Your first goal is simply to achieve 10 minutes. Headspace – this one isn’t free but is the one that I really couldn’t be without. It teaches you how to meditate in just 10 minutes each day.
• Now, in the words of a popular fitness brand JUST DO IT! Again, and again.
And above all, stay strong and hold your resolve.
Take small, manageable steps, knowing these will feed a longer term desire to really improve your life.
More info: www.healthhaus.co.uk
