How I Achieved My Resolutions By Doing Less

Is it even a New Year’s resolution if you haven’t broken or forgotten about it by February? If you’re anything like me – and 90% of the human race – resolutions don’t always make it 365 days. And you know what? That’s okay! You’re a human, not a failure. Forgive yourself immediately and get back in the ring. 2018 is far from over and everyone knows January is a trial month.

Long before I woke up at 5:30am for a workout or eagerly gulped down green juice in the morning, I was trying to create a healthy routine that would last me the year. Instead, I pressed the snooze button three more times and hid the barely-used greens powder in the back of the pantry. Until I discovered a hack that made creating a healthy routine feel less overwhelming.

I started doing less.

When it comes to creating a healthy routine, it comes down to one thing. Literally. Start with one.

Rather than being realistic in my goals, I assumed I was capable of changing everything all at once. I would wake up early, go to the gym, drink greens, cut out carbs (just kidding, I never dared, but you could), and get a six-pack. New year, new me, right? Wrong. New year, same overwhelmed feeling. If I really wanted to make a healthy routine, I had two choices: figure out what would work or get hypnotized.

Curiosity told me to go for hypnosis, but I’m here to disappoint and say this is not an article about how hypnosis turned me into a lean, mean workout machine. Instead, I decided any goal would seem more manageable if I was doing less for a short term. I could do anything (within reason) for a month.

After one month of waking up early to workout, I started waking up early not because of coercion, but of my own free will. Seemingly overnight – 30 nights to be exact – I enjoyed my morning workouts.

Short terms goals are easy to focus on and achieve. They also create long-term routines. Even after that month was over, I chose to keep up my morning workouts while focusing on a new goal. As each month passed, I was working out, drinking green juice and still not cutting out carbs (but I could have)!

It may not feel as sexy juggling a long list of goals, but has juggling ever really been sexy? You know what is sexy? That moment something that seemed impossible becomes your daily routine. That day you wake up and do the thing you once were forced into. The reason building a healthy lifestyle feels so impossible is because we try to do everything at once, but a heavy load only leads to everything being dropped on the floor.

And so to everyone who is feeling down for breaking their resolution so soon, I congratulate you. Because now you have a chance to try again and succeed.