9 steps to New Years resolutions that last longer than New Years Day

9 steps to New Years resolutions that last longer than New Years Day9 steps to New Years resolutions that last longer than New Years DayThis year I resolve toHold on a second. Lets bedrngnis join the lemmings who screw this up every year.88% of peoplefail to achieve their New Years Resolutions.There is a ton of science on this subject so if we want to do New Years Resolutions, lets do them right.First, stop fantasizingDo fantasies give you the energy to achieve your goals?Nope.Fantasies steal the energy you need to achieve your goalsPositive fantasies allow people to mentally indulge in a desired future. Whereas previous research found thatspontaneously generated positive fantasies about the future predict poor achievementResults indicate that one reason positive fantasies predict poor achievement is because they do not generate energy to pursue the desired future.Youre getting the reward before youve done the work and this kills your motivation. Dont celebrate on mile 3 of the marat hon.Itching to express something about your resolution? No problemWrite your goals down.Writing about goalsmakes you happierand makes youmora likely to follow through with them.Now its time to grit your teeth and get to work? Wrong.Willpower is limitedRelying on self-control only is a suckers bet.Roy Baumeister, author of the bestsellerWillpower Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, explained in ourinterviewWhen we did the laboratory tests, it consistently turned out that after people exerted self-control in one task and then came to a different self-control task, they would do worse on the second one. It really seemed like they had depleted some energy, some kind of resource in the first test, and didnt have as much available for the second one.That has been found over and over again, and indeed lots of different laboratories have now shown similar effects, too.You are not going to muscle through with willpower. You cannot sprint for miles.Change takes planning and strategy.So whats the first step?New Years resolution - singularHow to conserve that limited resource of willpower?Conquer one resolution at a time.This way you exert less willpower and concentrate what you have.Royrecommends this specificallyInstead of making them all at once, make them in sequence and start with the easiest one.If swearing is the easiest, then do that one first because that will strengthen your willpower and increase your capacity when you move onto the harder ones.If you make this resolution and you actually keep it, your body gets used to exerting self-control and it becomes stronger and more ready to take on another challenge.What else works?Making something habitual means you dont have to exert willpower.You spend40% of every day on autopilot, just performing habits and its not exhausting at all.HeresRoy againThe more you follow a routine, plan in advance, or operate on the basis of habit, the less moment-to-moment strain there is, and the less demand for willpower.So h ow do you get the ball rolling when trying to start a new good habit?Minimum viable effortIts okay to be a little lazy at first. Literally, just do the minimum.The key to new good habits is todo the minimum and be consistent.Stanford researcher BJ Fogg calls it Minimum Viable EffortThe first step is crucial - keep it tiny. Do not be ambitious yet. That leads to failure.Consistency is what youre shooting for here so make the hurdleas low as possible.In fact, make it so low youll feel stupid that you were unable to do something that literally would have takenseconds.But what if you want to get rid of abadhabit? Well, thats differentReplace, not killThe secret to breaking bad habits is to not try to eliminate them butto replace them.The first step is awareness.That cigarette doesnt magically appear in your mouth.Noticing yourself acting habituallyis a big first step.Next is find your trigger.What starts you down the road to that habit?I get stressed and then I eat. I get bored and the n I want a cigarette.Next is replace.What are you going to do now when that trigger arises? Establish something new to take the place of the old habit.Sounds challenging, right?What can make this easier?Make a planRichard Wiseman dida study of people who achieved their resolutionsand found thatpeople who succeeded had a plan.He sums up the results in under a minute hereBut planning is hard, you say.Want a powerful but passive way to increase your chance of success? Get ready to move some furniture.Manipulate contextManipulate your environment so as tomake what you should do easy and what you shouldnt do hard.You can resist bad habits byavoiding the triggersthat make you want to do them.Context is key.Change your environment so you dont have to exert self-control.Throw out the donuts. Hide the booze. This has been shownto be very powerful.ViaHabitWhether were talking about college students or people in the community,45% of the behaviors participants listed in their diaries tended to be repeated in the same schauplatz almost every day.If you can make good habits take 20 seconds less time to perform and bad habits 20 seconds longer,youll likely see big changes in your behavior.Adding things to your environment can be a big help tooReminders to do the right thing (likesignsor eventext messages) work.SuperfriendsContext isnt just inanimate objects.Friends areone of our biggest influencesand can bea potent tool for habit change.Via100 Simple Secrets of Happy FamiliesStudies of people trying to change their lives, for example by losing weight, found thatthey are 22 percent more likely to be successful in their efforts if they are open with their family from the start about what they are trying to do.From Charles Duhiggs excellent bookThe Power of Habit Why We Do What We Do in Life and BusinessWhen people join groups where change seems possible, the potential for that change to occur becomes more real. For most people who overhaul their lives, there are no seminal mom ents or life-altering disasters. There are simply communities- sometimes of just one other person- who make change believable.But how do we sustain all this?It aint over til its overIronically, studies show saying Ill never do that againmakes you even more likely to do that again.Expect to fumble.Its okay. In Richard Wisemansstudy of people who achieved their goalshe realized we shouldExpect to revert to your old habits from time to time. Treat any failure as a temporary set-back rather than a reason to give up altogether.So you say youre not going to eat cookies. Then you accidentally eat a cookie. Thats not when the diet is blown.The diet is blown when you eat the one cookie and say So much for that resolution - and then devour the rest of the bag.Dont get discouraged.There are so many tools to help you. (If-then scenarios areone of the most powerful toolsfor resisting triggers.Commitment Deviceswork too.)Overall, usebaby steps, focus onconsistencyabove all else andrewardyoursel f for small wins.This post is over but the challenge isnt.IfCookie Monster can improve his habits, so can we.Join more than 320,000 readers.Get a free weekly update via emailhere.Related postsHow To Get People To Like You 7 Ways From An FBI Behavior ExpertNew Neuroscience Reveals 4 Rituals That Will Make You HappyNew Harvard Research Reveals A Fun Way To Be More SuccessfulThis article first appeared at Barking Up the Wrong Tree.More from Ladders5 scientific secrets to handling a narcissistThe best answer when an interviewer asks what animal are you?6 reasons recruiters say theyll toss your resume in the trash