A reoccurring theme I’ve seen lately in a lot of the blogs I read is that you should not set goals/resolutions for the New Year; rather, you should form habits and find solutions to your problems. Let’s dissect this idea a bit further.
It has been said that a habit is formed when you repeatedly perform an action each day for 30 days in a row. For instance, if you start to drink 6-8 glasses of water everyday for 30 days, it should become a habit. Granted, one can fall out of habit and stop performing the action. But once the benefits of the action are seen as a loss, one normally resumes performing the positive action.
This can lead to one finding a solution to a problem. Being overweight can be considered a problem for many people. Forming a habit of exercising 30 minutes a day, 3 times a week can be a possible to solution to this problem. Once the positive benefits of the solution are seen (i.e. weight loss, a continued sense of “feeling better”), one is more apt to continue the habit as it is seen as a solution to the problem.
I am a bit conflicted as to this logic. I have set many goals for myself this New Year after completing a beneficial 30-day evaluation of myself via 30DLBL on PE. I’ve always been told to work toward completing your goals as goal/resolution setting can provide motivation and/or incentive toward completing various tasks. But I can see the logic in the habits/solution theme. It seems easier for me to form a habit of drinking more water which will solve my problem of being dehydrated as opposed to forming a goal of drinking more water each day.
In summation, I think I am going to give this habit/solution idea a try. Hey, it’s a new year so it’s worth a shot. What do you think?
