How to Create a New Habit / New Year's Resolutions

Good news is that you've only had 3 days to screw up writing down '2023' instead of '2024.'
That said, you've also had three days to already screw up your New Year's Resolutions. How's that a for a slap in the face eh?!
Want to eat better? Workout? Maybe combine the two to lose a few pounds?
Or maybe you want to read 24 books in 2024.
Or quit smoking/drinking/etc.
Or maybe you want to rekindle old relationships and foster better, new ones.

If previous failed attempts of Resolutions has given us anything to learn from we have to ask the big glaring question - how do we formulate a new habit?

Well. If I had thee answer for you, I would probably be an author of a best selling self-help book and not your friendly neighborhood Chiropractor. That said, I've read a plethora of such 'self-help books' and have some knowledge (and experience) to share with you.

The good news is that creating a habit is stupidly simple. There's only three steps.
1. Cue
2. Routine
3. Reward
Yep, that's it.

However, I didn't say that these are the three steps to creating a NEW or 'good' habit - I said that these are the steps to creating ANY habit.
Good or bad. Healthy or unhealthy.
You see, we've undoubtedly fallen into bad habits from the same three steps.

Now how we leverage these steps in order to take-over our sheepish ways mumbling through the world and really drive home some new habits is uncomfortable. It's not easy. And that's a good thing. Because that feeds our reward.

Let's talk about the most common New Year's Resolution for an example - losing weight either by eating better or moving more.
Your previous habit might look something like this:
1. Cue: it's 12:00 (built-in lunch break) at work
2. Routine: you go eat at Jimmy John's down the street because it's convenient and easy as you scroll through Social Media.
3. Reward: your leptin/ghrelin levels in your belly do what they do best and tell you that you're full and you just got a fake dopamine boost from seeing what everyone did this weekend on Instagram.

Sound pretty common for you? Or at least relatable enough that you get the picture?

Okay so we're clearly talking about the food aspect of losing weight right? Wrong. We're talking about both diet and movement with these previous habits. It doesn't take an hour to mow down a Jimmy John's sandwich. TRUST ME.

And it's important to note that you likely didn't choose this routine/habit loop either. You probably fell into it by happenstance and convenience through time and repetition.

The cool thing about creating a new habit is that it only takes two things. One, we must change the Routine. That's it. We don't alter the cue. And the reward is a byproduct. So it might change, or it might stay the same as before (which is actually ideal if we're really struggling to stick to our changes)

Let's look at how we might change your day-to-day lunch break to a little more healthy of a habit:
1. Cue: it's 12:00 (built-in lunch break) at work - Remember this step doesn't change!
2. Routine: You jump on the treadmill or bike lightly or walk around the parking lot for 30 minutes and then go inside and grab your lunch from the fridge that you measured and packed the night before
3. Reward: your leptin/ghrelin levels in your belly STILL balance out to tell you that you're full AND you were able to sneak in a little movement which actually increases your dopamine levels.

If we look back to compare the two habit loops you'll see that the ONLY thing that changed was the routine. Which is awesome because your brain still gets the feedback reward from the previous habit, but with a healthier long term option.

Sounds nice doesn't it? Heck, it even sounds easy. We all know the saying "sounds too good to be true" right? Yeah, well it rings very true here as well. This change is HARD. It's uncomfortable. But as my dad once said, "tough times don't last but tough people do."

Are you willing to go through the first 2-4 weeks of uncomfortable change to ultimately become a better version of you? That's where we go beyond saying that it's a habit and now it's your routine or lifestyle. And that's a darn cool place to be.

Keep that in mind for the next 363 days (it's a leap year!)

Speaking of New Years Resolutions - did you know we offer 1-on-1 training?!
Whether you're a patient that we've moved out of pain and now we get to focus on performance OR if you're simply interested in getting stronger, more mobile, and more resilient - we've got a tailored plan for you.
Interested in learning more? Let's chat about it!
Shoot us a call, email, or ask your provider during your next session!