Tips for establishing healthy new year habits

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It’s almost a new year and it’s time to reflect on the year gone by and think about how you want the coming year to go.  For many of us, we’ll be considering how to make regular physical activity a part of our routine.  

Here are a few tips to help make the coming year different than the one gone by:

1. Make your new good habit easy to perform: for example, if I want to establish a daily walking habit, I can get a comfy pair of shoes and leave them by the door I would exit from on my way to go out for a walk–somewhere I will see them often and be reminded to go out for a walk today.  I also want to account for things that would cause me to be deterred–maybe I also place an umbrella next to my walking shoes in case the weather is rainy.  Or a jacket with a pair of gloves in the pocket hanging nearby.  I want it all near the door, ready to use, so that it’s easy to perform the habit I want to create.

2. Create an intention by designating a time and location for your habit: Say out loud: “I will walk to the park and around the sports fields between my 9am and 11am meetings each day this week.”  Being specific about your intentions makes it more likely you will do them.

3. Make it rewarding by attaching your new habit to an existing habit: “I will watch [insert favorite streaming show] at 10am after I complete my morning walk at the park.” The inverse statement is also helpful: “If I don’t do my morning walk, then I won’t watch an episode of [favorite show].”

4. Be realistic with the goals you set: are you a single mother of three young kids, who works two jobs to make ends meet? Can you realistically work out 5 days/week for 90 minutes/day?  Clearly not.  Better to truly commit to an attainable goal than to quit after a week of failures because your goal was too ambitious.  To use our walking example, an attainable goal might be to walk 10k steps 5 out of 7 days (even if that means marching in place inside because it’s snowing outside).  Or, depending on where you’re starting, that may not even be a realistic goal.  If you’re battling depression or morbid obesity, maybe your attainable goal is to put on your walking shoes every day.  I know it sounds like a low bar to clear, but you are more likely to go for your walk if you put your shoes on than if you don’t.  When building a new habit, you need to establish a new identity– “I’m someone who walks all the time–I’m a ‘walker’.”  Each time you get your walk in (or even put your walking shoes on), you are casting a vote for who you want to become.  

5. If needed, seek out professional assistance: we all need accountability in our lives, and having a designated person who you communicate with on a regular basis can provide that.  If you can’t afford to pay someone to be your accountability partner, do it the old-fashioned way: get a calendar and mark X’s on each day you walk.  With our walking example, don’t let there be more than one day without an X on it.  If you fall down, get back up!