Are you taking stock of the last twelve months? What went well? How could things have been more successful? What did you hope to do but fail to get started? Which new habit fizzled away and which one became the norm? Are your thoughts already turning to plans for the new year ahead? Understanding how to effectively break old habits and make powerful new ones stick is an important part of the process but how do these changes successfully become habit?
Crushing your new habits with a growth mindset
At Planet Positive Change we’re already getting inspired and motivated to achieve new goals for the year ahead. So far we have a half marathon and a couple of long distance cycle rides in the mix. We spend so much of our time talking growth mindset to others that it makes sense for us to harness the benefits of a growth mindset for our goals in 2023. Here are some growth mindset principles we use for starters:
- Believing that our goals are achievable is key.
- There will be times when we don’t succeed. Forget guilt. Extracting every last ounce of learning information to improve future performance is what matters.
- Understanding that new habits can take time to embed is essential.
- Analysing failure rocks.
Analysing previous efforts to change
When you begin working on a new habit, start by asking
- What went well? Can it be improved & if so how?
- What worked so well that I need to keep doing it?
- What went less well and how can that be improved?
- What will I do differently next time?
If you want to change a behaviour, it’s crucial to analyse previous attempts at change. So for our half marathon goal, we’ve been examining what’s got in the way of training in the past. Have we sometimes snoozed through our early morning run slot? Yep. Do we ever quit when we’ve made it out for our run? Nope. Each question provides useful information that can help tweak routines and develop strategies for success. Observing existing habits can also help avoid the obvious pitfalls, does a late night make us less likely to hit the trails with a bounce first thing? It’s an easy fix.
Join us as we trial habit changing tips and tricks until they stick
So our current goals are a great opportunity to put to the test a series of habit changing tips and tricks. Join us on our crash test dummy quest to discover which tips stick and which are kicked to the kerb. Each week we’ll trial a habit changing tip and report back on the good, the bad and the ugly of putting it into practice. Join us, we’d love to hear about your goals, your trials and your successes.
