Habits for a fresh start

We’re midway through January now. You may have made some new year’s resolutions - you may even have filled in one of our Stop Start Continue cards with the intent to make some changes.

But how do you make these resolutions or commitments a reality?

(If you'd prefer to watch this, you can catch the video on You Tube: https://youtu.be/cBxU3ccixsA)

Well, a lot of it’s about removing the thinking from the equation and being quicker to action. Get to the doing. It’s often not as hard as our tricky minds make it out to be. Hear me out.

Sometimes we wait for inspiration or deliberate until the “right time.”

“Yep, that makes sense actually. I’ll push that back until….” etc, etc.

I said that our minds were tricky.

But, and this is speaking from experience, when you rely on inspiration or motivation or further logical affirmation to come first before taking action, you could be waiting a long time.

Now, I’m certainly not one to promote mindless action, but often taking concerted action first will end up generating that motivation and that momentum needed to build a habit. Too much thinking can put you off - especially when it comes to change as we often perceive change as hard. We can easily talk ourselves out of it.

I’m not an anti-thinker. Far from it. I love to think and there’s a time and a place. Intentional deep thinking in the self reflection period is essential for raising self awareness and will allow you to build the right plan of action.

Because you need a better understanding of what fuels you. What gets you working at your best. What hinders you?

What do you NEED? What do you need less of?

Build the simple plan of action and then take the action that serves these needs.?

Remember, you’re not looking to change everything at once. Make some simple, considered, realistic commitments that you can stick to and that you know will make a difference over time.

Over time. This is key.

Don’t abandon your commitments if your world hasn’t changed after a week.

It’s different for everyone.

However, I do think that there’s SO much to be said for starting every day like you mean it. When we’re really busy, it’s SO hard to break deeply ingrained habits, even when they’re not really serving us well. We roll into each day and onto each task doing the same old things.

When you START with clarity of intention you’re less likely to simply get stuck on the conveyor belt of busy doing.

For me, it’s so important to do something that pulls me into the present moment, giving each day the weight of attention it deserves.

This is how I’ve committed to start my days with intent? in 2024:

• 6 minute cold water plunge;
• followed by some deep breathing outside in the garden in just my trunks, exposing my body to the day’s elements
• Drink a pint of water
• followed by 15-20 minutes meditation
• Get dressed and brew a coffee mindfully, ready to start work at 9am

The key is that these are really, simple actions to stick to. If I remove my mind from the equation, and the fact that, for example, I don’t feel like getting in freezing cold water first thing, they are EASY to action.

We can so easily overcomplicate things with overthinking - but any worthwhile change comes from simple actions that cumulatively make a big difference.

Author: @chri, Chief Creative Officer at FROM:TODAY