It’s that time of year once again, where resolutions and good intentions abound! Visualisations of new lives and wanting to improve our minds and bodies start, but for many they never come to full fruition.

Busy work and life get in the way, and we end up resorting to our old ways, only to say we will try again next year. To live the same cycle over and over.

But we don’t want that to happen to you this year! This fresh slate can be used to help get down to changing our lives for the better!

The best way to start change is with small steps, small habits. These small alterations we make to daily life are the most successful in the long term and lead to bigger changes in the future. When changes to our daily routines are big and loud, they seem scary and, more than likely, we fail to follow through on such drastic changes. Big changes require a lot of motivation to succeed, but for many of us this cannot be sustained for long periods of time.

Here are some of our best tips to set you up this year and make sure that you get on the road to becoming your best selves!

Start Small

The most successful habits come from tying the new one to old routines. For example, doing a push up every time you go to the toilet. Over time, you will start to see changes and developments to your body and wanting to improve upon the small change you made. But, doing one push up a couple of times a day to begin with seems a lot less scary than challenging yourself to doing 40 push ups a day, and then when you fail, giving up altogether.

Do It Every Day

Habits take time to develop, but the more frequently we do them, the quicker they will settle into our daily routines and lives. A study by the European Journal of Social Psychology found that the average amount of time it took to create a habit was 66 days. Starting off with a smaller more sustainable habit, means that it is more reasonable for you to complete it every day, thus succeeding in creating your habit more efficiently.

The Easier, The Better

If there are obstacles stopping you or causing difficulty in succeeding in your new habit, this is another thing that can cause our good intentions to be thrown out and just given up on. The simpler and easier the new habit you try, the better and more likely you will be to succeed! If you want to exercise more, but getting to a gym is not convenient, and you believe this might be an issue, why not try doing a workout from home? Or trying to fit some jumping jacks in in between the ad breaks when you’re watching tv.

Be Kind to Yourself

Trying to make a change in your life, no matter how small is cause for celebration, whether that be rewarding yourself with a small gift every now and then, or maybe just the pride you get for doing so well and knowing that you are trying to better yourself!

But we must remember, creating habits and change is a journey. There are always bumps, so don’t be perturbed and give up the first time you forget to do, or can’t do, something. The key is consistency. Remember, trying to do something a couple of times a week without rhyme or reason is always better than giving up altogether.