Life-Changing Habits for 2024!

I would like to start 2024 with a new perspective on making healthy habits and personal resolutions that actually work! At the end of last year I read Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything by B J Fogg. He is a behavioural scientist who founded the Behaviour Design Lab at Stanford University and his research looked at how people create long-term, lasting habits.

The book had a big impact on me and I think it is fantastic if you are struggling to change your diet, your fitness plan or anything else in your life! I wanted to share some key insights with you, as well as some very practical tips and helpful advice. 

As you can see, tiny habits are not only great for our health and fitness resolutions, but also for our pets. I’m very proud of the tiny habits that Pickle has that make her an obedient and friendly dog…and also very impressed with how happy she is to learn new habits!

 

New approach and new mindset 

2024 is a new year and many of us will have resolutions for this new year that include better physical health, better relationships, better mental health or better clarity in our work and life overall. The good thing is that we can change the way we put these resolutions into practice so that they have that life-changing impact we all want…and also be fun and affirming in the process! 

You may be familiar with the old American anacronym ‘KISS’ – ‘Keep It SImple Stupid!’ Well, we are not stupid, but how do we keep our resolutions and habit simple so that we achieve them without negativity and discouragement?  

Sometimes we have the motivation and the ability to make changes, but still feel like we are not seeing much change in our lives. According to Dr Fogg, a real game-changer is the prompts that link new habits to existing habits or to established behaviour that is already rewarding and affirming. 

He puts it this way: ‘After I (prompt), I will (behaviour).’ This insightful formula enables us to take a new behaviour and find where it fits in our life so that it has the best chance of developing into an established habit. 

Just as a mechanic fixes a car or a gardener cultivates a new plant, we can also fix and cultivate the habits that shape our behaviour every day! 

 

Make it easy! 

First of all, we don’t need lots of good resolutions to be so difficult we never achieve them. The first step is to make your resolution easy, that way you will be far more likely to actually do it. If your goal is to increase physical strength this year, then don’t immediately sign up for expensive gym membership but opt instead for some tiny habits that will be easy to implement.  

Tiny habits leave you having a sense of achievement that will mean you are more likely to continue. For example, a few tiny habits that will help build physical strength could include: 

• Try to do two push-ups every time you visit the bathroom. 
• Every time the phone rings do two squats after the conversation. 

These are such tiny modifications! But they are so easy to do…and the great thing is you will very quickly find that you are doing ten or twenty push-ups or squats and your strength has increased. 

 

Stack your habits 

If you have well-established habits in your day (we all have them if we look for them), you have the perfect opportunity to adapt them so you achieve more healthy habits. Adding a tiny change to these existing habits is the best way to see long-term changes. 

For example, adapting existing habits could mean: 

• Enjoy your morning coffee before eating any food so that your body is in a fasted state for longer 
• While drinking an afternoon cup of tea, put away your phone and focus your thoughts and prayers on positivity rather than negativity. 
• After you sit down to eat, take a breath to remind yourself to eat mindfully. 
• After you walk in the door after work, put on exercise clothes. 

 

Reward yourself often! 

We don’t have to see this process as a negative one! Changing bad habits or trying to put in place good habits which are long overdue can often carry lots of negative baggage. Feelings of worthlessness, boredom or reminders of past failures can all make us feel like not even trying. We can change this!  

Forming new habits can be inspiring and freeing, so focus on those feelings through the process. One way of doing this is by celebrating each tiny step. Or by including rewards and positive reinforcement, which not only release dopamine in the brain but also prompt ‘feel-good’ emotions that are so much more helpful than negative emotions. 

I wrote a blog last year titled A Great Paradox: Joy and Pain. I believe we all need joy…especially in the midst of ongoing physical and medical challenges. You can read it to find out how to keep our joy and why rewards are good for us!

You can watch a video of Dr. Fogg giving a TEDx Talk in which he describes his research and the clip also show audience members practicing small celebrations.

You can listen to Dr. Fogg in the ‘Knowledge Project’ podcast as he describes how positive emotions help you change and how tiny habits create the biggest changes. 

I hope this blog has given you inspiration and strategies to include some new healthy habits in your life in 2024! 

 

With every blessing, 

Emma 

  

Emma Maitland-Carew – Registered Nutritional Therapist 

Dip.ION, mBANT, CHNC Registered Practitioner, ILM Accredited Wellbeing Coach 

Certified Live and Dried Blood Analysis, Metabolic Balance® Coach, HeartMath Coach, Accredited Wellbeing Coach