New Year, New Habits
If you're like many of the unsuspecting victims of the "New Year, New Me" bullshit resolutions that people make on Facebook, then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about. I have a different POV; New Year, New Habits: Screw New Year's resolutions!
Making overwhelmingly hectic resolutions for 2018 is one way to 1) set yourself up for future failure (I'll explain below) and 2) make yourself feel obsolete and worthless.
Why do I say resolutions don't work you ask? Because...well...*clears throat*...LOOK AROUND YOU! How many unhappy people do you see? I'm guessing a bit. How many overweight people do you see? I'm guessing a lot. How many people do you hear saying stuff like, "Oh shit, my resolutions are fucked, 2019 my year fo' sure?"
What often ends up happening is we set ourselves a lofty resolution like, "this year, I will eat zero junk food, go to the gym 7 times a week and learn how to sew a sweater using only my feet." You are only setting yourself up for failure (and a big one at that -- especially if it's a "resolution"). By this I mean, if you are truly honest with yourself, you should know that at some point you WILL fail. We are wired to fail -- It's in our blood. But, that's ok. Because I have a solution (I hope)..
The Solution: New Habits
Habits are different to resolutions in that they don't overwhelm or daunt you in a way that paralyses progress. In other words, if...wait, WHEN, you fuck up, you can simply look at it through an objective lens and say to yourself, "It's cool, I'll try again the next time around."
I truly believe habits define us. We are habitual creatures. Creatures that have evolved and thrived from habit formulation...unfortunately, for most, these habits consist of watching too much Stranger Things while eating bags of Doritos and drinking soda -- hey, I'm not saying I haven't done this a number of times, we all need time to say, "fuck it. Today I don't feel like doing anything, seeing anyone or leaving my room."
But, don't let this behaviour consume you. When you in-still the right habits, you may be surprised at the net result.
Putting the right habits in-place will create a snowball effect -- the more you do it, the more it exponentially grows into an unstoppable force of nature that wrecks havoc on all humanity as you rise through the ashes of the Egyptian desert...ok I got carried away, but you get the point.
Habits create habits which create other habits and before you know it, you no longer have to think about ordering the pizza -- because, your unstoppable habit-making machine of a brain has already ordered the bun-less burger with sweet potato fries.
How to generate ever-green habits with ease
- Pick a habit you want to put in place (i.e. going to the gym more often)
- Ok, cool, but what exactly is "more often?" -- in other words, make it measurable. 3, 4, 5, 6 times a week?
- Start small. I mean reeeeeaaaal small. Don't psych yourself out of it. if you want to go to the gym on a given day, simply say to yourself, "Ok Jim, I will just put on my gym (see what I did there) clothes and walk in. I won't even exercise." More than likely you will go and do a light session -- maybe not the best one, but it's a start and it will create a ripple effect on the days and weeks to come.
- Track your progress and Reflect. Seeing your progress on paper can be liberating and taking time to reflect where you can improve will give you perspective.
I'm keen to see what 2018 has in store. One of the greatest lessons I have gained insight to this year is; don't wait for the perfect time and/or ideal conditions to start a project or creative idea. I started this small blog, YouTube Channel and created a social media presence without any thought. I honestly said to myself, "I'll see where this takes me. Just freaking do it."
That thought propelled me to volunteer for the Bulletproof Biohacking Conference which took place in Pasadena, California, earlier this year -- it was one of the most transformative experiences of my life. That same thought also initiated great relationships with supplement suppliers that have asked me to review products of theirs and give my honest opinion.
I'm going to leave you with a quote from the one and only Gary Vaynerchuk which I absolutely love:
“You have to lose the Micro battle to win the Macro War”
This means that yes, you may not have millions of followers in the beginning (the reason most don't even start is because of this inevitable reality -- everyone has to start somewhere) -- but, if you take small steps and keep the bigger picture in mind, eventually you will get your due and win on a Macro Scale.
Cheers for the support, I hope you have a cracking 2018!
“BE YOURSELF BE PRESENT BE BOUNDLESS”