For most of the last 50 years I have made New Year's Resolutions...ultimately keeping very few.  The law of good intentions!
But this year I didn't make any...so naturally I find this interesting article from Popular Science on how to trick your brain into keeping your resolutions!
"Getting fit and losing weight are two of the most common New Year’s resolutions, and both depend on making daily changes to your life. That means interrupting your normal habits and exchanging them for new ones. Unfortunately, humans are terrible at doing both of those things".
The science geniuses at PopSci say the first thing to do is to quantify your goal and then break it into smaller, more achievable pieces. "Abstract goals make the worst resolutions. Your brain may excel at coming up with them, but it’s bad at accomplishing them. It’s easy to keep mindlessly moving through your daily grind, so you’ll likely keep forgetting to “learn something new” or “eat healthier.”
So smaller bite sized pieces are best and as you complete those small pieces your brain will reward you, and the more frequently you do that the stronger the connection in your brain gets, and you’ll be more motivated to continue along to your goal.
If your goal involves developing a new habit, you’ll want to connect the changes you want to make with things you already do, for example, if you want to start working out, decide you’ll do it right after you get out of bed, or right when you get home from work. Also, don’t forget to reward yourself after you do each thing—simply mentally telling yourself you’re proud of what you did that day might sound silly, but it will actually work.
I always heard you needed 21 days in a row to create a new habit but popular Science say the magic number 3 times that. it takes about 66 days for people to form a new health habit, and this is about how long it will take for your brain to form a strong connection that makes doing the news stuff automatic instead of being forced.

 

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