How to Stick to Your New Year's Resolutions

It’s 2020 now, time for a list of New Year’s resolutions. The only thing about New Year’s resolutions is that the motivation to stick to it seems to fade away after a week or two. Or maybe even after a few days. So why is it that we can be so hyped up about a “plan” or “target” but then forget all about it when we wake up the next morning?

The reason behind this is because our brain likes instant gratification. This situation is heightened thanks to social media- we post a photo and immediately the likes and comments start rolling in. The fact is, we are wiring ourselves to be less and less patient with our progress when it comes to our daily life. We search for things like “how to lose weight in 10 days” or “how to get abs in 2 weeks”. We want fast results. We want to achieve a goal, so we pour all our hearts at it for that short period of time, but when we get the results we want, we immediately revert back to our old ways.

The question is, how do we build a system that works AND lasts?

THE 1% RULE OR KAIZEN (改善) METHOD

Instead of trying to achieve a big goal, break it up into smaller goals. For example, if your goal is to lose 3kgs in a month, and you make a whole big plan to exercise every day, not eat junk food, not eat desserts, etc., trust me, your willpower to stick to this goal will not last long. Instead of planning for a whole month, plan out what you can do each day. Maybe for the first day you cut out a sugary drink, on the second day, you exercise for 10 mins. The key here is to plan out a system that you yourself know you can follow EASILY.

Start small. Like, really small. I have always loved reading, I used to read so much when I was younger. But in the past few years, smartphones have taken over my life and I read way less than I used to. In order to get back to this habit, I had to devise a strategy that I could stick to at the same time not make it feel as if it was a chore. The plan I came up with was to just read for at least 20 mins every day. 20 mins, that’s just like 1.4% of my day, I could do that. So whatever new thing you’d like to incorporate into your life or whatever bad habit you’d like to break, remember to START SMALL.

Don’t fall into the all-or-nothing approach. Always remember to give yourself some space. If you have been consistently eating healthily, it doesn’t hurt to eat a small handful of your favourite snacks. Note: a small handful. I stress this point because what I used to do is the all-or-nothing approach. I would maintain eating clean for a few days, and when I had a huge craving for a biscuit I could eat almost the whole jar. Yep. Not exactly the best diet plan to stick to. Which is why this 1% method works so well. It is not restrictive and there is no “end-goal” to meet. It’s always just you being in the process of continuously improving, looking at it day by day and not a week later or a month down the road.

Look, I know that 1% might not seem like a big deal. 1% of eating clean foods won’t make me lose 2kgs in a day, 1% of sitting down and studying won’t make me get 100 marks on an exam, 1% of exercising won’t suddenly make me have an 8-pack washboard abs. But hey, 1% accumulated every day is already 365% in a year. Imagine how much you would have improved as an individual in just ONE YEAR by getting better 1% every day?