Every year in January, many of us start the year with a list of new year resolutions.

Some may want to lose weight and enroll in gyms.

Some may want to earn more money.

Many others may want to spend more time with family.

There can be thousands of different types of new resolutions that pop up.

Unfortunately, only a small percentage can follow through. The idea of going to gyms to exercise for an hour may seem tempting for a few days, but that feeling wears off for most people. Earning more money seems like a goal with no headway. Finding more time for family becomes impossible.

It all starts with us identifying a problem and telling ourselves to solve that problem. There’s nothing wrong with that.

But we put all our hopes on the new year — by tagging our goals with new year resolutions.

The first problem with this approach

We are trying to eat a whale in one bite

The excitement of the new year can only be continued if we start seeing results immediately.

That means a lot of extra work in January, compared to December.

Some people can do that — they can decide on a major project and completely change their routine. But for most, it’s better to pace it differently. Especially when there are so many moving parts in our lives.

Another problem with new year resolutions is the lack of an immediate reward system

Some of us may enjoy the gym workout and that itself can be a good reward. But most of us look at weight scales or the mirror to check for visible results.

One month is hardly enough time to start seeing noticeable results.

I lost 22 pounds in weight in 3 months — but the results only started becoming visible after 2 months.

The third problem is the monotony that comes with doing the same thing over and over again

We might not have the discipline in the beginning to internalize a new habit. But without discipline, a resolution can’t be fulfilled.

Brushing teeth is a mundane task but it’s part of our life and we don’t think about it. The target is to make a new habit as ceaseless as brushing our teeth.

What you can do about fixing new year resolutions ?

Create the ideal environment for a habit that’d get you to your new year resolutions

Maybe you want something as simple as combing your hair after showering.

What do you need for combing? A mirror and a comb. But, you keep your comb in a different room.

That’s not ideal for creating a habit.

For a couple of days, you will be able to go to a different room and get the comb. But eventually, you will forget to do so.

The ideal situation will be to keep a comb just beside the mirror and in the bathroom.

Make it easy for you to complete the task you need to do.

Make a home for a habit

Where do you have breakfast?

Maybe at your breakfast counter or dining table. You are used to doing that.

What if you move to a place (temporarily) that doesn’t have a table or counter. You will find yourself skipping breakfast.

Every habit has a home. During vacation, you’ll find yourself skipping a few habits as you will not be in your regular location for habits.

You can reverse engineer it. Maybe you want to read for 30 minutes every day and you commute for 40 minutes using the subway. Whenever you get on the train, you can take out your book and start reading. After a while, getting on the train will serve as a reminder to get your book out.

Make sure your activity has a designated space.

Focus on creating a “starting” habit, not the ideal habit

What’s the difference?

NHS recommends we brush our teeth two times a day for 2 minutes each time. While that’s great, someone who’s learning to brush might find that difficult to maintain. For them, the starting point would be — brush twice a day.

In the initial days, it doesn’t matter if they do it for 2 minutes or 30 seconds. But once they are used to the task, then you can teach them to increase the time.

The key idea is — an ideal habit is a destination and going to that is a journey. You don’t need to start your journey at the destination. It’s ok if you gradually get there.

Start and forget perfection in the beginning. Just showing up is enough in the first few days.

Use the 2-minute rule to create the “starting” habit

David Allen in his bestselling book, Getting Things Done, said that —

If it takes less than two minutes, then do it now.

A two-minute task always seems manageable.

You can use that mindset to your advantage. You can break down your ideal habit, especially the starting point, as a two-minute task

For example, you might want to become a better writer and write for 30 minutes every day.

You must make it easy for you to do so. Writing 30 minutes per day might seem difficult. But opening your laptop, opening a word file, and writing 3 sentences would seem more manageable. You should just give yourself that target, in the initial days. Once again, the idea is to get started. You can improve from there.

Break down the task in the two-minute opening so that it’s easier to start

Give yourself small rewards for achieving milestones towards your new year resolutions

For some activities, you can make the reward part of the activity.

If you are on a weight loss journey, you can track every day how your weight is moving. If you lose weight, that’d be a reward good enough to go on.

For others, rewards might not be easy to get. You should create a list of things you like and give yourself that after a 7-day streak. Maybe you can buy yourself the expensive tea you wanted or buy yourself a book.

Create a rewards system to keep yourself motivated

Mix it up to keep things interesting

After a month or so, you may want to add more elements to your routine to make it interesting.

If your habit is reading, then it’s relatively easier. You can add a different type of book to keep yourself interested.

If you like jogging in the gym, sometimes you can change the speed and incline on your treadmill.

If you are eating healthy, you can experiment with some exotic spices. The possibilities are endless.

Keep changing minor elements to keep yourself interested

Set an improvement plan in place

If working out for 60 minutes per day seems difficult in the first month, you can start with 5 pushups or go to the gym & stay a little bit, or take a short 5-minute walk in the park.

From there, you can gradually improve. You can check every month how often you are doing that activity.

After a couple of months, you will feel like spending more time. You may even think, “I have started this so let’s continue for a little bit more.”

It’s ok to start slow. But also keep a plan to improve from there.

To summarize

New year resolutions can only be successful if you form lasting habits.

That’s where things get tricky.

But forming a habit can be easier than we think. Let’s end with a concrete example. You want to learn French —

• The ideal habit: You decide that you’d learn for 30 minutes a day
• The environment: You need an online course, and two books for your required learnings. You collect all of them
• The home: You keep the books and your laptop in a corner of your home where you’d like to spend time learning
• The starting habit: You plan to open the laptop and watch two minutes of the course
• The two-minute rule: You target to spend only two minutes to start the habit. The idea is that you will get hooked enough to continue learning
• The improvement plan: After a month, you see you have successfully studied for 30 days. It’s time for your to push yourself and spend more time
• The reward: Buy yourself a ticket to a french movie after a month-long streak
• The variety: Change the location once or twice or bring in a french-speaker to practice with sometimes

Follow this method and see your new year resolutions come to life.

This article was first published on Medium.