As the new year starts up it is usually the time that everyone starts thinking about New Years resolutions. I have often made numerous resolutions in years past only to break them in the first week. It seems like the more I make the quicker I break them. The problem with resolutions is they are often vague and usually just an idea not a written goal.
I have a thesis that I am working on for 2006. It goes like this. Each month of this year develop one new habit. Make it simple and doable. At the end of each month decide on a new “habit” for the next month and continue doing the existing habit. At the end of the year 12 habits will be developed. All of these habits will be written down and be simple enough that I can verify if they have been done. Experts say that most actions take at least 21 days to become “habits” so a month should be ample time for it to become routine.
I started this thesis back in October. My first habit was to drink at least 2 quarts of water per day. This is a pretty simple habit but it did take some planning to accomplish. I had to make sure I had a way to measure the water I was drinking and that I had a good source of water that I could take with me in the car and to work. I decided that 1 liter bottles of drinking water would do the trick. I bought a case of them from Costco and took some to work with me. It’s real easy to see if the goal has been accomplished as I will have 2 empty bottles at the end of the day.
Even though this was an easy goal it took verification to keep me on track. The regemintation of the work week made the goal reasonably easy to follow during the week, but weekends tended to be a problem. It is the “change” of schedule that throws things off. I can say that I have been about 80% successful with this goal. It’s real easy to get back on track.
November was a new habit. This time it was taking my lunch instead of eating out. This would not be an ultra rigid goal but one that would be practical for most work days. The good part about this habit is cost savings and eating healthier. This goal took preparation and weekly shopping trips to accomplish. This goal has been somewhat harder to maintain but overall I have been successful with it.
When my father passed away in mid November I decided would wait until January to start “habit” number three. When something unexpected happens like a death in the family everything gets thrown off and a “normal” schedule becomes impossible. My goal for the month of January is to write a new article at least once a week for this blog. This is a little different than my other habits as it is a weekly task instead of daily. This will take a little different form of verification and I’ll have to decide on a day of the week to review my “habits” to make sure I’m on track. If this habit holds true, I’ll have over 50 additional articles by the end of the year.
With my new week starting tomorrow, I’ll now have three habits that I’m responsible for, drinking water, taking my lunch, and preparing an article. I have developed a weekly checklist that I can check off each habit on a daily basis. The weekly habit I will check off on Sunday. By the end of the year I’ll be tracking 12 things. My thought (thesis) is that this will be much more successful than trying to set numerous goals in January and trying to do all of them in a short period of time.
I also think that most of these “habits” will become second nature after a period of time. Time will tell. So far written verification seems to be the key. With this type of thesis many things should be possible. Diet and exercise goals can be broken down into components and developed over time. One month choose to give up sodas. This alone may save 300-400 calories a day. Later in the year make it a habit to have at least 2 pieces of fruit a day. Simple doable things.
Travel and recreation goals can be combined in a timeline. A monthly travel and lodging combination sounds great to me. Example… each month make it a habit to travel to a new place and stay at a nice hotel or bed & breakfast. Combine these two “habits” with a photography habit and a journaling habit and the results could be life changing and really fun.
Imagine the habit of taking your camera wherever you go and recording people and places. Combine this with a journal of your activities (paste some photos into the journal) and you have history in the making, recording your travels and the people you meet along the way. Do you like a certain type of food? Say you enjoy tacos… how about discovering the best taco place in the town that you stay in. At the end of your year you’ll have a journal full of pictures, stories, and memories of interesting people and wonderful food. Maybe add the habit of corresponding with people you meet along the way by e-mail or snail mail. Sounds like a great book to me… how about writing a chapter a month?
Twelve simple habits over the period of a year… it could be a real adventure.
How about starting today?
30 Responses to '12 Habits in 2006'
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Excellent idea. I pray the Lord gives you the strength and courage and wisdom to carry them out. Fulfill them, and you’ll be way ahead.
Thanks for the comment Jeff. This is a very different “Goal” process than I have used in the past. It will be interesting to see how it works as the year progresses. I have always done better with tasks that present a singular focus rather than having 8 or 10 competeing goals challenging each other.
I like your quote on your blog. “Within a few weeks of New Year’s Day, I probably couldn’t remember what resolutions I made.” This is so true and a great reason to WRITE them down.
John
Very interesting idea John. Thanks for sharing it. I too hop eyou find the strength to change 12 things in your world this year. If I can be of any help, please let me know.
Great idea! Good luck. I look forward to reading about your successes!
[...] What does this add up to? He suggests 12 habits in 1 year. You start by writing down one thing you would like to accomplish, making sure it is small enough to be manageable but big enough to be a challenge. For the first month, focus on reaching that goal. Do something every day or week toward it. At the end of the month, if you have been consistent, you would have established it as a habit. Then add your second goal and spend the second month focusing on developing that habit while maintaining the one from the first month. Keep that up for 12 months and by the end of the year you will have accomplished your goals by making them habits in your life. Sounds doable to me. Right now I am feeling kinda hungry… Musings on People that flowed from my brain at 12:11 pm Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2006 [...]
This is excellent. It definitely gets to the point of starting off and picking up steam on a curve. I’m interested to know what you did to make the habits “stick.” Did you do any kind of check-in on your progress? How did you re-inforce the effort?
Jeff #1, the Lord has nothing to do with a person’s self-improvment or habits, any more than “he” causes my craving for sweets. If you need the Lord, more (or less) power to you.
improvement - pardon the hasty typing
How about listing your current habits?
[...] Success Begins Today » 12 Habits in 2006 Tags [...]
[...] http://successbeginstoday.org/wordpress/?p=143 [...]
12 Habits in 2006
January generally is the month of the planning. John Richardson at Success Begins Today urges single one of us to get one good habits in shape for every month. What is the hidden tips? Our last post, 10 Ways to Achieve your Goals Quicker introduces wr…
Christopher (#7), are you challenging a belief in a supreme being or that the supreme being would have anything to do with a human’s daily habits?
Many thanks to everyone who has commented and tracked back this post. This subject has been my most popular post to date and I think it really points out the need for a simple system to accomplish goals.
Chris: As far as making habits stick, I have found that it takes much longer than 21 days to become an “automatic” habit. I’m on my fourth month of drinking 2 quarts of water a day and it is just now becoming automatic. The key for me has been a simple written list which jogs my memory. It is sitting on my desk where I can refer to it everyday. I’ve also made a copy of the list for the car and at work on business cards which are easy to put in a place where I will notice them.
Aartist: My current 5 year goal is to develop a sustainable online business helping people become more successful. My two year goal is to become a member of the National Speakers Association. My one year goal is to become a paid professional speaker. This one year goal will be broken down into habits that would be helpful for a professional speaker including fitness habits, educational habits and organizational habits.
Visualize doing the goal. What do you see? Who are you working with? Where are you? What materials do you have? This helps to formulate habits that will help you accomplish the goal. Thinking backwards (begin with the end in mind as Steven Covey would say) helps you design the path you need to take to get to the finish line.
Christopher Michael and Hofo: I think prayer and being in fellowship with people that have faith in you are key to any successful venture. It’s really hard to accomplish many tasks alone.
[...] Thursday, January 12th, 2006 - Practicing What I Preach My younger brother hates setting goals. Well, mostly he hates (or lacks the ability) to think things through in a logical fashion, with bulleted lists and all that. Come to think of it, I think he just hates work in general. I’m always telling him, ‘pick a desire, turn it into a goal, and then break it down into steps and mini-steps! give yourself a deadline!’ And then today on my RSS, this article pops up.I have a thesis that I am working on for 2006. It goes like this. Each month of this year develop one new habit. Make it simple and doable. At the end of each month decide on a new “habit” for the next month and continue doing the existing habit. At the end of the year 12 habits will be developed. All of these habits will be written down and be simple enough that I can verify if they have been done. Experts say that most actions take at least 21 days to become “habits” so a month should be ample time for it to become routine.Sounds like genius to me; why hadn’t I thought of it before? It’s already the 12th of January, but if I pick a pretty easy habit, I think I can squeeze in under that 21-day bar. So what’ll it be? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about staying in the habit. A common mantra among writers is that you must write every day (which might explain why I haven’t been able to touch a novel in three months…). Maybe the same goes for translation? Alright, then here’s the goal: I must translate at least ten pages every day. I have a few projects in the queue waiting to be done, and maybe if I get into the habit of doing (for me, anyway) a large number of pages every day, I’ll get up to even higher numbers! As for February and beyond, maybe I’ll try to get the dishes done every day. Or take a shower every two days, on the dot (currently my average is closer to four >_ [...]
Let’s wait and see, shall we
[...] Success Begins Today » 12 Habits in 2006 (tags: tips Productivity lifehacks howto) [...]
[...] Stell dir vor wieviele Dinge die du dir zur Gewohnheit machen könntest, die dein Leben langfristig verändern können? Ein Eintrag auf successbeginstoday.org brachte mich auf die Idee mir pro Monat eine neue Gewohnheit anzugewöhnen. [...]
great site you have made
12 habits in 2006
A few weeks ago I read a blog entry titled 12 Habits in 2006. Here is the premise. Develop one new habit each month. At the end of the year 12 habits will be developed. Doesnt sound too hard, right? So Ive decided to adopt this activity for myself….
[...] 12 Habits in 2006 [...]
Hi John,
You and your readers may be interested in the work I’m doing on the good habits students need and how they can acquire them. You can have a look at my blog, here. I’ve added a comment mentioning your post.
Best wishes,
Eric
[...] Lack of discipline I think lack of discipline is fundamentally intertwined with procrastination. Procrastination is essentially the inability to discipline yourself to do something now, so it lines right up discipline problems. Unfortunately, there’s no magical way to combat lack of discipline or procrastination–the only thing that will work is developing some discipline. It can help, however, to think about developing discipline in small chunks. Make discipline easier by breaking it down into steps. Instead of saying “I want to lose 40 pounds” (a pretty ambitious goal), think “I want to lose 5 pounds first. To do this, I can ignore at least one snack craving per day and walk a mile at lunch instead of sitting at my desk or driving to a fast food joint.” Small behavior changes like these require minimal discipline but will definitely help you keep your resolution. This type of behavior planning and positive habit forming brings us to the #3 culprit for resolution failure… [...]
12 New Habits in 2006…
Lifehacker’s Retro Roundup pointed me to a great article on creating 12 new habits each year by tackling one every month. John Richardson put into practice the same strategy that I wrote about yesterday [Small Victories], creating small projects that…
[...] January 11th, 2006 This seems like a pretty reasonable way to go about things: Success Begins Today - 12 Habits in 2006 My first habit for this year is to go to the gym an average of three times a week. I will continue to keep in mind my other “resolutions” through the rest of the month, but this is the one I’m dedicating myself to. [...]
[...] 12 2007: http://successbeginstoday.org/wordpress/?p=143 [...]
[...] Also, it being new year and all, I thought I’d share this link with you - yes everyone claims to have the secret to willpower, but this kind of thing I think would actually work if anyone actually tried it. [...]
Ok it’s been 7 months. Have you an update on this habit-a-month plan?
Hi Roberta,
Thanks for your comment. I am putting together an upcoming series on habits and goals later this month where we’ll take a look at the process of developing habits that stick. I’ve learned a lot about this over the last year… some habits come easy, some are easy to start but hard to stick with, and some are downright hard to implement. I’ve found a few things that work for me and a lot of collected wisdom from around the blog-o-sphere Stay tuned.
John
Keep Those Resolutions…
4000 years back Babylonians started the New Year by paying off debts and bringing back borrowed goods. In Rome, the New Year was considered a time to expunge old ills and set a pattern for the next twelve months. Every……