Out of Chaos an organizing newsletter

Every Day is New Year’s Day

I hate New Year’s resolutions. People just fail, and then they feel bad. But in theory, they are good. You just need to remember that resolutions don’t have to hinge on one magical, fraught day. You need to remember it’s a process, and every day you can work towards your goal, even if the day before didn’t go so well. Think of it as making every day New Year’s Day.

Most of you have resolutions, or things you’re working on—mastering new habits or eliminating old ones. If you really want to succeed, you will need to balance compassion with discipline; you’ll have to get up every day and remember your goal, and try to keep that focus.  And if you fail one day, you need to forgive yourself, and try again the next day. But you’ll also need to ask yourself why that day it was hard to fit in the yoga or resist the chocolate chip cookie. Usually (hopefully), more self-knowledge will make you less likely to fall into the same trap the following day.

Habit science tells us that it takes, on average, 30 days to develop a new habit, and about 90 days to make it automatic. So, if you are reading this on January 6th, you could reasonably expect to have developed your new habit by Valentine’s day, and have it well ingrained by Easter. Cool, right?

Habit-expert and author James Clear has graph I like to show people. It depicts what he calls “The Valley of Disappointment.” Basically, it shows the steep curve of habit formation. The valley is where you are struggling to practice your habit, but it still feels forced. But even though it’s hard, as you climb that hill, it’s actually becoming a tiny bit easier every day.

This year, forget about January 1st. Try to behave as though every day is New Year’s Day, a fresh chance to repeat those behaviors you want to instill and avoid those you want to eliminate. You should find that every day you’ll get a just a little closer achieving your goals. Like this idea? Interested in a workshop on “Making Every Day New Year’s Day”? Let me know.