If the truth be told, I am not a big fan of setting New Year’s resolutions. By mid-January, most people’s resolutions have already been broken. They become one more thing to feel guilty about.
These are the most popular New Year’s resolutions that people set from year to year: (1) lose weight, (2) save money, and (3) get organized for increased productivity. At the end of each year, these resolutions get set again by tens of thousands of people, with the hope that next year will be the year they’ll finally reach that elusive goal.
How often do New Year’s resolutions actually support you in making meaningful changes that yield the results you desire? If they work for you, great! If not, keep reading to learn a different way you can approach your desire to make lasting changes in your life.
Rather than trying to attack big goals all at once, consider taking a day-to-day approach to achieving your goals and intentions, which you can begin any time of the year. That’s how meaningful change really happens, anyway…one day at a time. By doing this, you can make small adjustments to your daily process. Over time, these small adjustments will help you enjoy bigger sustainable results.
According to Charles Duhigg, author of The Power of Habit, “When our brain creates a new habit, it creates a new neural pathway. The pathway gets thicker and thicker, and as a result, it gets easier for neural activity to travel down it.” In other words, the behavior becomes so ingrained that you no longer need to consciously think about it to make it happen. That’s why experts tell us that it takes at least 21 days of consistent repetition to form a new habit.
If you’d like to learn a simple formula to help you create any new habit you desire, check out my new guide, Creating New Habits.
Defining Moments
You have that defining moment when you decide you’ve had enough! Your bad habits have become painful enough to you that you’re ready to make some drastic changes. Maybe you need to lose some weight, pay off some debts, or quit wasting valuable time surfing the net so you can manage your time more productively.
You’re really motivated to change, and you’re ready to design a master plan that will get you from where you are to where you want to be.
You write out a bold self-improvement strategy that includes big goals with firm deadlines. You do all the prep work needed to achieve success. You’re excited, motivated, and all the stars are in alignment for you to finally turn over a new leaf!
Your first few days with your new plan go great!
But then life happens…
You had a long and exhausting day at work and you just don’t have the energy to get to the gym. On your way home, someone handed you a discount pizza coupon just as you were thinking about how much you’d enjoy sinking your teeth into some heavenly dough, oozing with cheese and other favorite toppings.
…or an unexpected emergency came up, and the money you’d planned to put toward your credit card debt was needed to pay for the emergency expense.
…or you decide that you’ve done so well being focused and productive, that you reward yourself by logging onto social media for just a few minutes. Once you jumped down that rabbit hole, there went the rest of your day!
Within a matter of days, your ambition is dashed. You can’t even bear to look at the failed strategies you’d written down in your planner.
You’re back to where you started, but even worse off than before. Not only are you overweight, in debt, and unproductive, but you feel like a total failure. You’d promised yourself that this time would be different.
You look in the mirror and all you see is LOSER written across your forehead.
The Kaizen Method: 1% Improvement Every Day
I'm quite fond of the Kaizen method. Kaizen is a Japanese word that means “continuous improvement.” Imagine if you just made a 1% improvement each day toward an important goal? The compound effect of that over time becomes significant.
“When you improve a little each day, eventually big things occur. When you improve conditioning a little each day, eventually you have a big improvement in conditioning. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but eventually a big gain is made. Don’t look for the big, quick improvement. Seek the small improvement one day at a time. That’s the only way it happens – and when it happens, it lasts.”
-John Wooden
The idea is to start small…really small.
Do you want to begin an exercise habit? Start with a one-minute brisk walk today. Tomorrow, add another minute to that. Each day, add another minute. A month from now, you’ll be walking 30 minutes a day.
Have you always wanted to meditate but just can’t stay focused? Begin with one minute of breathing exercises. Tomorrow, add another minute. The next day, add another minute. Over time you will condition yourself to maintain a meditative state for a longer period of time.
Perhaps you’d like to establish an evening routine that supports several healthy habits you want to create. Start small by concentrating on the last 10 minutes before you go to bed, building on good habits you already have established. Plan what you’ll do during those 10 minutes: brush and floss your teeth for 3 minutes, read something inspirational for 5 minutes, write in your gratitude journal for 2 minutes. Make these things a habit. Each evening, add 5 more minutes and include another activity you’d like to add to your routine. Over time, you’ll create a satisfying evening routine that supports your priorities and becomes a habit.
Get Off the Self-Improvement Roller Coaster
Your desire for improvement may feel like a roller coaster ride with its proverbial ups and downs. By the time you’re headed back down for the gazillionth time, self-disgust and self-loathing have kicked in as you curse yourself for trying and failing yet again.
If you wonder why this keeps happening, you’re not alone.
Three possible reasons your self-improvement attempts end in failure:
1. Your goals overwhelm you.
Your brain may register a BHAG (big hairy audacious goal) as something really impossible and scary. When this happens, the natural reaction is that your brain kicks into fight, flight or freeze mode. Although big goals can be inspiring, they can also feel so overwhelming that you just stop dead in your tracks and don't do anything.
If a big goal is important to you, be sure you break it down into several small and not-so-scary action steps that feel attainable. Apply the Kaizen method—1% improvement each day.
2. You're looking for a quick fix.
Despite what an online ad promised, there's no magic pill to lose weight. Contrary to what you heard on a recent podcast, there's no overnight secret to financial success. We all get the same 168 hours a week to invest as we choose. Although I offer many free productivity tips and tools, there's no single one that will make you more super-efficient than everyone else.
Rather than spending your precious time and money searching for that elusive magic bullet, invest your time consistently taking the action steps you know will produce the desired results over time.
3. You've stopped doing the things that were working.
You're ready to buckle down and get to work. Slowly but surely you start seeing results. You lose five pounds. You've shaved $300 off your credit card debt this month. You've limited your social media time to just 15 minutes a day and have enjoyed a super productive week.
Yea!!!! Congratulations on your successes!
Napoleon Hill warns us about this stage: "The greatest danger occurs at the moment of victory."
Self-improvement is an ongoing lifelong process. Just because you've achieved a small goal, that doesn't mean it's time to rest on your laurels and declare victory. When you have some success and things start getting better in your life, it's time to keep going if you want to maintain it. Unfortunately, more often than not we stop to celebrate. When you stop doing the things that helped you make progress in the first place, you run the risk of backsliding and feeling defeated.
And now you're back on that self-improvement roller coaster ride!
Consider how you may fall prey to any of these traps along the road to success. Now that you’re aware of them, you can make adjustments in your approach to working toward a goal.
Now, it’s your turn. Consider the Kaizen method—1% improvement every day—to make small improvements every day that will gradually lead to the change you want. Each day, focus on getting 1% better in whatever it is you wish to improve. That’s it…just 1%. It may not seem like you’re making progress, but those 1% improvements will start compounding on each other. Gradually, you’ll notice the improvements in your life as you consistently up your game.
What will you choose to make a 1% improvement on daily? Please share below in the comments.
If you’d like a fresh perspective—someone to help you design the life you want by aligning your vision, priorities, and actions—let’s schedule a no-cost, no-pressure Discovery Call today. Together we’ll explore ways you can honor your heart’s desires.
Additional Resources:
Guide: Creating New Habits
Blog: 101 Ways to Save Money
Blog: 9 Tips to Get Healthy While Saving on Fun & Fitness
Blog: 12 Tips to Save Money on Vacation & Travel
Tips: Free Tips & Tools for organizing your time and your life
A Kaizen mindset can transform how you do your work and how your company performs. A focus on daily improvement, embracing failure and learning from it, creating high quality products, and meeting customer needs is the foundation of a Kaizen culture.