Making Bad Habits Good and Getting Your Resolutions to Stick

It is around this time that many of us make New Year's resolutions. A personal commitment to self-improvement takes time and effort.

This might mean:

• Exercising more

• Eating healthier

• Saving money

• Reducing stress

• Learning a new skill

• Cutting back on screen time.

Most New Year's resolutions don’t work. Only about 8% of people keep them until the end of the year. Around 80% give up by mid-February. It is vital to make your resolutions realistic. If you have not exercised in two years and plan to run a marathon in two months, chances are you will not make it.

In many cases, it is about replacing bad habits with good ones. Easier said than done—right?

I have just finished reading James Clear’s book “Atomic Habits” for the second time. This is an easy-to-read book. It outlines a proven way to build good habits and break bad ones.

It is an oldie but a goody. First published in 2018, it has become a classic business reference book. Don’t let that put you off, though. The book is a great guide if you want to boost your personal growth or stick to your resolutions this year.

What I like about the book is that it is full of the author’s heart and soul. It is not just a dialogue of research findings and “how-to” from other authors. It's about his discovery of good habits and taking small steps on top of each other to make a change.

The book evolved from his personal experience. At the end of his second year of high school (sophomore year in the United States), he was hit in the face with a baseball bat. He lost consciousness before the ambulance arrived. By the time he got to the hospital, his body was slowly shutting down.

After months of difficult recovery, all Clear had on his mind was playing baseball again. After a year of self-doubt, he made the varsity team. Two years later, he played for the Denison University team.

It was at this time that he learned the power of small habits.

Later in life, when he started his own business, he began to turn the lessons he had learned into a plan. A four-step model for habits: cue, craving, response, and reward.

Sound familiar?

It should. If you have ever had a dog, this is exactly how you teach it obedience and/or tricks.

Clear works on the principle that we start out to make a change from the wrong standpoint. This is where many New Year's resolutions go wrong.

The goal (or resolution) is not to read a book. But to become a better reader. It is not to run a marathon. But to become a better runner.

Shifting our mindset helps us focus on long-term thinking rather than just short-term goals.

Clear says that when an action or thought is tied to your identity, it's harder to change. In his book, he covers seventeen chapters. These are split into four sections, one for each law of change.

The first law is to make your challenge to the desired habit you want to change obvious. You need to recognise what your current habits are in order to identify the ones you want to change.

Next, after making your habits clear, make the good ones appealing. At the same time, make the bad ones less appealing.

The third law (Make it easy) and the fourth law (Make it satisfying) are where the changes actually happen. Habit formation is the process by which a behaviour becomes more automatic over time. The number of times you perform it is more important than the amount of time you have performed a habit.

The final step in making change (in getting those resolutions to stick) is to make it satisfying. Immediate rewards are better incentives than delayed rewards. If you want your dog to sit, give him a treat right after he does so. If you wait five minutes, he won't connect to the reward.

If you need inspiration for your routines or want to break bad habits, I highly recommend this book as a guide.

Does it work?

You will have to see. It worked for me, and I continue to use some of the initiatives presented in this book.

The book is published by Penguin Random House UK. You can find it on Amazon, Booktopia, or at your local bookstore.

Till next time,

Calvin