New Year: New Habits. Tips for Developing New Habits.

At the beginning of each new year, millions of people set intentions to create new habits that will help them move to their next level, achieve their goals, and become their “best” selves. Habits have a great influence on our lives and accompany us every day. When we’re intentional about creating “good” ones, the road can feel like an uphill battle. Below, are a few tips to help you develop the habits you'd like to create for yourself in 2024.

Start small - very small

In the beginning, when we get excited about the idea of a new habit, we often get very attached to what it will make better for us. While this initial enthusiasm helps develop the motivation necessary to even begin to train a new habit, unfortunately, it can also often lead us to jump into the process with expectations that are far too high. We want to jump right into meditating for half an hour every day, doing an hour of yoga, writing three pages, or reading 30.

At the same time, however, such high expectations can lead us to not even start with what we have resolved to do. Because the next morning we conveniently have no time, not enough energy, or too little motivation.

So it can be helpful to start with very small steps and get into the habit of doing something for the new habit in the first place. So instead of meditating for 30 minutes every day, start by meditating for just one minute every day. Instead of reading at least 30 pages every day, you can start by reading at least one page every day.  You're sure to find enough time, energy, and motivation to do this and won’t stop your new habit before it even starts.

Start small

Once you've started small and you're already repeating these first small steps for yourself regularly, you'll quickly notice that you're pushing for more, you're getting better, and you might actually get a little more done every day. This feels good at first and you notice in this way that your habit is successful.

However, this also requires at least a little caution. Similar to our first tip, it can easily happen that you take on too much at once. Because again, it's always better to do a little than nothing at all - especially when it comes to training a habit.

So to avoid falling into the trap of taking on too much that you won't do, you should only increase slowly and linger on each increase for a while to check whether it's really suitable for your everyday life and whether you can actually continue your habit with this increase.

Slips are part of the game - so is moving on

Everybody has a bad day. That also means it's perfectly normal and okay to skip your new habit once in a while. Whether that's because you don't have time or energy, something else has come up, or you just can't get yourself to do it that day.

The problem, unfortunately, is all too often that we think in an all-or-nothing logic. Either I do it every day or I've failed and for better or worse I have to give up. However, the reality is quite different and the people who really follow through with their habits are the ones who plan for failures and slip-ups and don't let them throw them off their game.

In addition to that, you can also think about what things might be keeping you from sticking with your habit. For these things, you can then come up with strategies on how to deal with them well, or at least how to manage to get back to your habit the next day in case you fail to do so on a particular day.

Use your coaching

You can, of course, talk to your coach about the habits you'd like to develop for yourself. Together, you can then figure out what you need, how you could get started, and how you can manage to stay on the ball. You can also report back to your coach regularly about how you're doing with your new habit. Not only will this motivate you to keep going, but it can also give you the support you need when you're struggling or having a hard time continuing.