{"id":2027,"date":"2016-01-07T17:22:36","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T17:22:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.humnutrition.com\/blog\/?p=2027"},"modified":"2022-03-28T19:53:00","modified_gmt":"2022-03-28T19:53:00","slug":"how-to-make-your-resolutions-last","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.humnutrition.com\/blog\/how-to-make-your-resolutions-last\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Make Your Resolutions Last"},"content":{"rendered":"Reclaim your New Year’s resolutions and accomplish your goals.\n\n\n\nAccording to a recent HUM study, only eight percent of Americans followed through on their New Year’s resolutions, whether they’d set out to eat healthier, lose weight, or improve their fitness. “If you lack a foundation of meaning and relevance, even the most heartfelt resolutions will fall through,” says Laurie Gerber, co-president of Handel Group Life Coaching<\/a>.\n\nKeep reading to learn essential tips that’ll help you stick with your resolutions and achieve your health goals. Make this year the one during which your resolutions #startwithin.\n

Take a Look at Your Habits<\/strong><\/h2>\n

TINY HABITS & HABIT FORMATION<\/h3>\nBJ Fogg, PhD<\/a>, a Stanford innovator and psychologist, focuses his research on behavior change. In his theory on tiny habits<\/a>, Fogg applies behavioral science to determine how to develop and stick to habits that allow you to achieve your goals.\n\nAccording to Fogg, rather than designing your resolutions around the outcome, lasting change occurs when you focus on the behaviors. Or rather, you focus on one behavior\u2014a tiny aspect of that behavior\u2014and little by little you achieve your desired outcome.\n\nFor example, let’s say your resolution (outcome) is to lose weight. A variety of behaviors cause you to lose or not lose weight: calories consumed versus calories burned, your metabolism, stress factors, exercise, nutrients, etc. The attempt to tackle them all at once with the broad goal of losing weight is doomed for most people. Here’s why: According to Fogg, three things must occur at the same time in order to affect behavioral change.\n
    \n \t
  1. Some level of motivation<\/li>\n \t
  2. Some ability to do it<\/li>\n \t
  3. A trigger or call to action<\/li>\n<\/ol>\nA habit is formed when motivation and ability intersect, and the action is triggered. Since motivation is flexible (it changes daily), sustained behavior comes when the action requires a low level of motivation, a high ability to do it, and a trigger. When you make the behavior a tiny habit, your ability to do it is high so that even when your motivation is low, you stick with the behavior and build the habit.\n\nNow for the trigger. Because you can’t force an epiphany every day at 2:55 p.m., Fogg suggests using an existing behavior to trigger your new tiny behavior. It looks something like this: After I [existing behavior], I will [tiny behavior]<\/em>. The tiny habits build upon each other, habit after habit and day after day.\n

    Set Up a System of Promises<\/h2>\n“A resolution is vague and open-ended; a promise is clear and specific,” says Gerber. She gives these two examples:\n