How can I make my New Year’s resolution stick?

We’ve all done it. Made the new year's resolution and been really good at doing it, and then we’ve been really good at giving up! Come spring, what’s left? Hum, thought so…

A resolution is a new habit that we want to create. So to make your new year’s resolution stick this year, you need to understand how to shift a new habit from a wishey washey thing that might or might not happen to a firmly rooted routine in your life.

• What could make the difference?
• What could help you not only start a new habit but stick to it?
• And how can hypnotherapy help?

Habits

A habit is a routine, something we do automatically because it offers us a certain reward. To put in place a new habit we need to look at the reward. Why do it? What’s the point? What do I want to achieve when I put this new habit in place?

Be precise, be clear, and be realistic. For example, this year I took up jogging. An unrealistic reason for me would have been: to run a marathon. One that I felt I could achieve and meant something to me: to run for 30- 45 mins and feel good

Then, sit down and write in one positive, simple sentence your reason WHY. Make this WHY as clear and precise as you can and then keep this reason WHY near you. Write it by your bedside table, put it on the fridge, or have it as a screen saver. This reason why is your reward.

You need to remember and feel it, not look baffled when someone asks you: Why have you decided to do this?

Your reason why

My reason why for running was: to be fit and healthy to hike up and along the French mountains I love in the summer. Once you have your why, think about the how. How am I going to make this happen in real life with all of its time pressures and ups and downs?

This is where your diary comes in handy. Plan the time in your day to give your new habit life and space. If it’s squeezed out and at the bottom of the list it will never ever happen.

What material things do I need to give myself a fair chance of achieving this goal? I invested in new running shoes and ear pods to listen to the coach on my running app while out. What do you need?

Another handy tip is to be accountable. Tell other people what you’re doing, that way you feel more that you ‘have to’. When you speak out loud and give voice to your intention, you breathe life into it. 

As you put your new habit in place, older, unhelpful habits and thoughts will rear their heads and sometimes it will be hard to resist their persistence. It doesn’t matter: just get back on the horse. In other words, you don’t have to be perfect, just be consistent.

Yes, I confess, sometimes I hit the snooze dial and didn't get my kit on and go out, but mostly I got out there. And the more you do your new habit, the more the rewards linked to it become stronger, and the more you want to do it. You’ve just created yourself a positive, virtuous upward moving spiral.

How can cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy help a habit stick?

It can help you recognise and dim down the negative self-sabotaging voice that is telling you that you’ll fail, that you’re not good enough, and that it’s pointless. You learn to answer back to those thoughts and challenge their truth. The more you do this, the more your confidence grows.

It can help you visualise and experience the reward and fantastic high of achieving your new habit. When you are in hypnosis you truly are there in your imagination, and the empowering feelings and thoughts remain deep within you long after the hypnotherapy session.

It can install a positive, strong anchor/cue that you can use when you feel like giving up or when you need an extra boost. It can help you strengthen your confidence and self-belief through positive suggestions while in hypnosis.

My goals

• Did I achieve my goal this year? Yep.
• Did I hike up those French mountains? Yep.
• Did I use CB hypnotherapy to help me? Yep.
• Am I going to continue jogging in 2023? Yes ,because it is a firmly-rooted habit in my life

How about you? What new habit do you want to make stick in 2023?