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Are New Year resolutions possible to improve your well-being?

Writer's picture: RonalynRonalyn

Dr Emma Secomb ….I’ve always wondered


Are New Year resolutions possible to improve your wellbeing?


It’s good to take stock with the beginning of the New Year, reflect on the changes you’ve made or not made, and how you feel about these.


New Year’s resolutions are notoriously a bit less helpful and I thought I’d share what some of the experts in changing habits have to say on the process, before we all get too caught up in our new Keto only/ alcohol-free/ present-all-the-time/ never yelling/ always going to the gym plans.


The most helpful book on this issue is James Clear’s brilliantly researched Atomic Habits. In short, to implement a new habit he recommends “stacking” (linking in time and place) a specific new action to an existing and neutral habit, like making a coffee in the morning or brushing your teeth.


James also points out research that shows when the emotional outcome (be it reward or disappointment) is negative or we “fail” to reach our stated goal we lose motivation to continue.


His recommendation here is simple – make the new habit impossible to fail.

For example, instead of saying to yourself “I’m going to go to the gym at least three times a week this year” you could say to yourself, “After my morning coffee I’m going to do two push ups in the lounge room every day”, and once this new habit is entrenched, add on to it incrementally.


Sadly, not all new habits elicit a dopamine spike, but the trick with these is to “bundle” them in time and place with a more exciting and well-entrenched habit. For example “after I check emails for 30 minutes I will play with the dog for five minutes”.


Conversely, when you want to get rid of a bad habit it’s important to understand the cues that trigger your craving for the action you want to change. This takes some curiosity and note taking, as it is only helpful when you understand your own behavioural cues, using generic ones like “I overeat when I feel stressed” won’t help, as “stress” isn’t going anywhere.


Once the pattern of cue, craving, action, response is defined it can be immensely helpful to remove the cues and avoid temptation wherever possible.


I’d like to thank everyone who’s written in and provided questions to explore, and positive feedback in 2022. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing these articles and look forward to hearing more from the Sunshine Coast Hinterland community this year.


My New Year’s resolution is, “I will write my HT article on the first Tuesday of each month, in my study” – I promise Victoria!


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