Keeping up resolutions

It’s already that time when some New Year’s resolutions start falling by the wayside. If that’s happening to you here is some food for thought.

When you’re thinking about skipping your new practice or habit, try and catch yourself and ask yourself why you decided to do this in the first place. If you can’t remember or no longer think it’s a good idea, then be kind to yourself and don’t worry about it. But if there is a meaningful reason why you wanted to make a change, try and harness that reason and get it done. Even if you do half a workout, go for a short walk, or only get to bed a few minutes earlier than you wanted to, it counts. Consistency and showing up are the keys to maintaining a new habit.

I typically don’t do New Year’s resolutions as I think it’s a bit arbitrary to use the New Year as some line in the sand after which I’ll suddenly be motivated to adopt new habits. Having said that I have tried to kickstart my meditation and journalling practices in 2022. Rather than saying “I must meditate and journal every day” I’ve been a bit vague and said “I want to meditate and journal a few times a week”. Whilst this makes it harder to measure success in that I don’t have a defined number representing if I’ve hit my goal, I find this method allows me to be more compassionate with myself and be satisfied with any number of meditation and journalling sessions above zero every week.

So far my 2022 meditation record looks like this. Some decent streaks and consistency so far:

I’ve journalled 22 days out of 25. I keep up my journalling habit by Making It Easy (from James Clear’s Atomic Habits). I keep my journal on my bedside table with a pen so it’s the first thing I do when I get into bed.

Reframing failure

I thoroughly enjoyed Rangan Chatterjee’s interview with Jake Humphrey which was released in December 2021: How To Live Your Best Life.

Jake described that when we go to the gym we often “lift to failure” - we lift a weight until we can’t manage another rep. In this context failure is seen as a good thing. If we’ve done a workout and pushed ourselves to failure in multiple exercises, we’ve had a solid workout. But in most other contexts failure is portrayed as something to avoid at all costs. Jake has flipped this on the head, much like the lessons from The Obstacle Is The Way, and has reframed failure as a means to build our resilience and seek out new opportunities.

It’s available in Podcast format or you can watch on YouTube. I’ve been a long time listener of Dr Chatterjee’s Feel Better Live More and I’m definitely going to check out Humphrey’s High Performance Podcast too.

Dry January

I decided to give Dry January a go this year. Technically I failed because I had a beer on January 1. But in the spirit of reframing failure, I’ve not had a drop since then despite going to a couple of bars and socialising with friends who have been drinking. I therefore consider this a win and a good test of willpower and committing to a healthy habit.

I’ve noticed that I get pretty low a couple of days after drinking. I rarely get drunk enough to feel hungover anymore but in some respects the low mood is even worse. I heard the phrase “booze blues” in a TV programme the other day and it’s a perfect description. Since taking a break from drinking my sleep and resting heart rate have been much more consistent. I also noticed that my fortnightly glass/can recycling bin is way emptier!

Research shows that doing Dry January results in more mindful drinking habits throughout the year. I do wonder if it would just be better to give up altogether. I’m acutely aware that it might be similar to me conflating my job with my identity - perhaps drinking has become part of who I am and that, along with alcohol being an addictive drug of course, makes the decision to quit seem such a big one. I’ll see how it goes.

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