When Your New Habit Fails

Alright, folks! January is gone. February is in the rear view mirror. 

Are you still eating your vegetables, going to the gym, and turning your work notifications off on the weekends?

 

How are your new habits doing?

 

I’m asking myself the same thing right now.

I regularly set the intention to do a better job of connecting with you, the wonderful people in my network.

After all, part of my mission is to help people start honest conversations with themselves and in their workplaces about how we don’t have to sacrifice our health and well-being to be successful and impactful at work.

Sometimes I do well with my intention.

For a while.

And then I start to drop off.

I get distracted. 

And then I stop altogether.

And then I ask myself the same question many people ask when they are trying to make change that matters to them.

What do you do when your new habit fails?

 

First, remember you're in good company and get some help. 

 

Second, remember why you were trying to build a new habit in the first place.

 

What was in it for you? What were you trying to avoid? What were you trying to achieve?

 

Third, go back to the last point where you were doing great.

 

What were the keys to your exercising that habit? Did you have social support? Were you pairing your new habit with something that you always do? What was making it work? Try to recapture what was working.

 

When we slip from our new habits, we often try to think about what wasn’t working.

But WHY we were doing them in the first place and 

what WAS WORKING can often give us traction and the energy to pick them back up again.

 

See you at the gym!!!