Did you know . . .
80% of New Year's Resolutions are the same every year?
70% of people give up on their New Year's Resolutions by the 2nd week of February?
I personally believe this is because about this time of the year we park our goals and dreams. Think about parking your car on your driveway for the remaining of the year. We put our dreams and goals on hold and we look to the New Year to go ALL IN and try to go from 0 mph to 100mph in 5 seconds. Imagine come January trying to start your car, which has been parking on your driveway for 60 - 90 days and trying to accelerate from 0 to 100 miles per hour in 5 seconds. It's just impossible! We then get so frustrated because we can create traction towards our goals, everything feel uphill and we end up giving up.
I recently started a new series of podcast episodes on how to end the year strong and create momentum into 2022. Over these series of podcast episodes I share tips and tools to start creating momentum NOW, so when you get to the new year you are already running at 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 mph. They say that bodies in movement tend to stay in movement and that is exactly why these last weeks of the year are so important in setting ourselves for a successful start of the new year. It's a matter of getting in the right mindset and making a simple decision: You can decide to leverage the next 60 days to end the year strong and create massive momentum towards 2022 or you can give up on 2021 and wait until January 1st to set new intentions and start over again.
I personally believe that habits are the key to create that momentum into the new year, specially keystone habits. What are keystone habits anyway? I was first introduce to this concept when I read the book "The Power of Habit" by Charles Duhigg. In his book he defines keystone habits as those habits that have a ripple effect in other areas of your life.
Investing time over the last weeks left in the year to install keystone habits can help you create momentum and the systems to help you make massive progress towards your goals and actually stick to them in 2022.
I want to share with you some ideas of keystone habits but before I jump into these keystone habits I want to preface that my intention with sharing this list with you is to provide inspiration and spark ideas around some keystone habits you might want to consider, but we are all in different seasons of our lives, we all have different goals and dreams which are unique to us, therefore you need to define what habits make most sense to you and will help you make the biggest progress towards your goals.
I think is also important to mention that you should not try to implement all habits at once. When you first introduce a habit it's hard to development the consistency around it, so starting with one, maximum three at a time will help build that consistency.
You might already have implemented and mastered some of the habits I am about to share, if that is the case, congratulations! Keep it up! and maybe look to one new habit you can focus on, again keeping in mind your dreams, goals and the season you are in your life.
Here are 15 keystone habits you might want to try introducing into your daily routines. You can learn more about each of them on Episode 91 of the Leading Yourself Podcast.
1. Reading / Learning
If you are looking for book recommendations to get started, check out some of my favorites personal, leadership and career development books.
2. Exercise / Movement
3. Journaling
4. Using a planner
5. Sleep
6. Nutrition
7. Drinking a glass of water before every meal
8. Saving
9. Gratitude
10. Waking up 30-60 min earlier
11. Stop snoozing
12. Networking
Check out a podcast episode I did recently on how to make networking less scary, where I shared some tips to be more efficient and effective at networking.
13. Setting intentions
14. Making your bed
15. High fiving yourself
To learn more about this, read Mel Robbin's new book: The High Five Habit.
Great! Bravo!