Research shows that January is the best time of year for fresh starts. But often those best intentions begin to unravel in February. Read on for success strategies for maintaining those healthy habits throughout the year.
Christine Carter, Ph.D. of the Greater Good Science Center, author of The Sweet Spot: How to Accomplish More by Doing Less and Raising Happiness, shines a light on The Three Most Important Tactics for Keeping Your Resolutions:
Make your resolution a habit, not a goal.
Checking off a list can be a dopamine hit.
Prepare for failure and practice self-compassion when lapses happen.
In the article, she also shares this video by Dr. Mike Evans, who takes us through research on "New Year Behaviour Change" to show us that success is not about big goals, motivation, or willpower; it's about small wins, facilitation and self-monitoring.
James Clear of Atomic Habits talks about the power of a visual cue to display your progress on your behaviour (and, in the case of my Health & Habit Tracker, the difference it makes to your well-being). He even references the Seinfeld Strategy of a prominently displayed calendar to discourage "breaking the chain".
This is how follow ups with me and our Health & Habit tracker work!
If you're a patient of mine, you know that I track your symptoms and ask about their frequency at our follow ups, along with how successful you’ve been at taking on my nutrition and lifestyle recommendations. Along with my designer, I created the Health + Habit Tracker as a way to measure our progress. It’s been in my patient files for years, but has now been polished by my designer so that patients can take it home to fill out, and bring back to our consults to discuss.
It’s something I do with my family, and it’s been super helpful for staying on track with our health and wellness goals. In my family we use it to track things like time spent being active, in nature, volunteering, and on our phones (the ultimate chi-stealer).
Below is an example of what the Health & Habit Tracker can look like partially filled out with common symptoms patients want to work on and frequent recommendations of mine.
I recently had another amazing patient reach out to ask if she could post her "Dr Elly's Health & Habit Tracker" on Social Media. I found it so inspiring that she was sharing her health journey and her resources.
In the words of James Clear, "mastery follows consistency: all we need is dedication to small, manageable tasks"
