Doesn’t time seem like it’s just been speeding along? It seems like January was just yesterday! Lately, the task of implementing new habits like meal prepping and morning workouts into my schedule has me feeling more tired and less focused than usual. Of course, life happens and each day isn’t going to magically go to plan as scheduled. However, I’ve really been trying to push through last minute interruptions or unintentional plans to keep my streak going - and I know I’m not alone.

According to U.S. News & World Report,

80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by February.

I swear I feel like I’ve heard every social media or news article quoting this statistic for the past month. Most, I’m sure, read this and felt discouraged at first but what this tells me is that the issue isn’t the goal, it’s the motivation to complete the goal. Duh!

Start Small

You can’t run a 5K overnight and you certainly can’t become a new person overnight either. Be honest with yourself and understand what you can tackle without sending yourself over the edge. For example, I would love to practice yoga everyday but it’s simply not realistic for me or my busy lifestyle at this moment. Therefore, I set a lower goal to attend class three times a week. It’s enough to keep me consistent but not to the point that it’s overwhelming to maintain or impossible to build into my schedule.

Understand Your Values

Of course people fall off when they are forcing themselves to work towards something they don’t actually want or can’t see the benefit of to begin with. Sometimes, we set goals for superficial reasons but it only sets you up for failure. Tie your goals to bigger motivations like being healthy for your future grandchildren or working on your diet to help keep hereditary issues at bay. These are real reasons that will keep you going when you hit roadblocks because they also have real consequences. Reminding yourself of your “why” is important for powering through and keeping habits consistent.

Throw Perfectionism out the Window

I’m absolutely guilty of beating myself up in the past when I thought I’d fallen back into “bad” behavior. We all know that anything in life is far from perfect. Don’t make the mistake of judging your behavior by an impossible measure like I did! Learn to forgive yourself and get back up. As long as you get back up, you’re already winning the race…

Practice the Five-Second Rule

Based on past experience, I knew that if I allowed myself to sit down and think long enough about going to the gym, I wasn’t going to make the decision to go. So instead, I would force myself to jump up and grab my things before I got a real chance to think about it. Pretty soon, my impulsive practice turned my decision into a habit that gave me more motivation as I experienced the benefits in my mood and physicality. Eventually, I found that Mel Robbins gave language to the “trick” that I had been practicing. The Five Second Rule in her words state, “If you have an impulse to act on a goal, you must physically move within 5 seconds or your brain will kill the idea.” It’s that simple!*

So Get out There and Start Moving!

*Psssst…You can explore more on Mel Robbins and The Five Second Rule Here!