Here we are, at the beginning of a brand new year, making resolutions and stuff... And I think we should ask ourselves the question: Should we? As we all know, most resolutions don't stick around past the first few weeks of January.
Why?
Because we didn't remember to put the secret sauce into the recipe. We can make goals. We can make them SMART goals. We can think through the ways we want to be different and come up with actions steps to achieve them. And these things are the meat and potatoes of change. They are important and we need them. But nobody wants to eat plain meat and potatoes all day long. Why not? Because it gets boring and monotonous. Meat and potatoes are made to be eaten with something more.
Enter Secret Sauce...
Do you have a secret sauce, one that makes food so good? Don't you wish you could put it in and on everything? It just makes everything work! (My secret sauce is fermented garlic juice.) The secret sauce for achieving goals is consistency. It's what just makes it work! The best-written list of habits will not help you achieve your goals, even if you do all 75 of them on January 1st (we all do it).
Every goal you have successfully reached was brought about by doing a few small habits consistently for a period of time.
Consistency is subtle.
When I add fermented garlic juice to a pot of soup, or my spaghetti sauce, I couldn't tell you why it tastes better. It just does. The change brought about by consistent habits is like this. Most of the time you do not see the results "As Seen On TV," but change is still taking place! Taking probiotics every day for a year will cause a significant change in your gut flora. Writing down three things you are thankful for every day will change the way you see life. Walking for 15 minutes in the sun, 5 days a week, will result in 65 hours of sun-exposure and exercise a year! Little things like this can make HUGE differences in your health. And these changes usually last, which is more than can be said for most "fad diets" or "get rich quick schemes."
So what should you do this year? Keep that habit list short!
1. Write down a few goals–the most important changes that need to happen in your life.
2. Come up with one (or maybe two) habits related to each goal that you can do consistently.
3. Prioritize and group them. Some go together, like drinking more water and less soda.
4. Startsome of those habits. Most experts recommend starting only one or two habits at a time.
5. When those are established, then you can start another one or two. Remember that consistency, not numbers, is your secret sauce!
Accountability helps consistency.
It's much easier to be consistent when someone else knows what you have committed to do. Share with the community! Tell us one or two of the habits you are committing to in a comment below.