The Best Habits To Pick Up For The New Year
Every day, we get up and go about our day as we always do, going through the motions of routine life. Though each day may be different, there are always going to be some recurrent events or actions that become an intrinsic part of our day. These are known as habits, they can hurt or help us, and over time can also have a lasting impact on the trajectory of our lives.
With it being the start of the new year, what better time than now to take baby steps and pluck out some life-changing habits for a new start. Let’s take a closer look at some of the great habits to pick up for 2023.
Time To Become An Early Riser
Nothing beats hitting the snooze button on your alarm and returning to your peaceful slumber; that is why waking up early is probably not a habit many people would want to include on their list. It is annoying and will take some real commitment on your part but it is actually quite worth it.
By waking up earlier you’ll not only have extra time on your hands every morning to savor your morning coffee but you’ll also get to dust off a load of activities. You’ll be able to incorporate yoga into your routine or read some of that book you’ve shelved for most of the year. Not only that, you’ll wake up feeling fresh, energetic and ready for the day as the earlier you wake up, the earlier you will sleep which will give room for you to have a proper bout of the recommended 8-hour snooze. Your mental health will also benefit as research has shown that the earlier your wake-up time, the more positive and optimistic you will feel during your day.
Now comes the hard part, actually doing it and waking up early daily. Turns out it is not as daunting as you make it out to be, it’s all about breaking the habit down into tiny parts and scattering them across an entire month. We’d like to call this the snail pace approach and the aim is that by the end of the month, you’ll be able to wake up one hour earlier. To do this, during your first week, you’ll start out by waking up 15 minutes earlier every day for 7 days. Follow that by waking up 15 minutes earlier for the second week and then keep at that rhythm of waking up 15 minutes earlier each week until by the end of the month you are able to wake up one hour earlier.
Get Up And Get Moving
Exercise is probably another habit at the top of many lists but when it comes to actually going for it, it starts to stack pretty low on our list of priorities. We’ve all heard it before, exercise is the one activity known to be jam-packed with a crazy amount of benefits whether it improves mental and physical health or the ability to reduce the risk of heart disease. That is great and all but when it comes down to it, incorporating it into our lives is not the easiest.
If this is the year you want to finally include it into your life, we’ve got you covered with some cool simple ways to turn this challenging goal into a newfound reality. First things first, exercise does not have to feel like a chore and it can actually be quite fun. If you love to shoot some hoops, then you can go for basketball, If you love to run, you can go for a daily jog, and even if all these activities do not appeal to you, you can think outside the box and get moving in a different way. It’s all about movement so it doesn’t necessarily have to be a sport, you could plop on your headphones, dim the lights and start dancing it out in your bedroom. It’s all up to you how you want to get in shape.
It gets easier from there as the next step is to pick a time and start small. Decide whether it’s more likely for you to stick with your workout in the morning, during lunchtime, or at night and once that is decided, stick with that time. If working out at 7 am in the morning is the best option so that you can get your workout in before work, then go for it. By setting up a time to work out every day, you are less likely to put it off.
With your time picked out, a more important step is to get yourself out of the trap of immediate burnout by starting off slow and small. When you first try to make exercise a daily habit, it is very easy for your body to get overwhelmed so the key is to do only 10 minutes per day as a way to kick-start the habit. Slowly from there, you can increase your exercise time and get your body slowly used to daily exercise and form that habit.
Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone
Our comfort zone is like a warm blanket, it’s a place where we feel safe and comfortable making it really tough to try to venture out of its four walls. Once you are out, it will be scary, almost like walking with a blindfold and you may slip a few times but getting back up is how you begin to shape yourself into someone capable of breaking out of their shell and growing into someone more adaptable and capable of new things.
It should be made clear that stepping out does not have to scary to be effective, you just need to get out of your everyday routine and that can be fun in itself. If you constantly have to make yourself uncomfortable to get out of your shell, you’ll back out early and it will not be sustainable in the long run. So, to begin this journey, you need to sit with yourself and write down everything that you want to try out.
It can be anything and it all depends on your character and life experience. Let’s say you are someone who is introverted and shy, in your case, getting out of your comfort zone would mean accepting an invitation to a party and dancing it out. Whatever it is that fits outside your circle applies, so fill in your list to your liking. Once it’s done, you can start tackling the list and go at it any way you like whether it’s tackling one thing on the list for the rest of the year or trying out something new every week, at the end of the day, the ball is in your court.
Plug In Some “Me” Time
These days our lives have become overstuffed with people, work, social media, events and the list goes on. With that kind of lifestyle, we barely have any time for ourselves to sit and reflect or to treat ourselves to a relaxing day at home. That special slot devoted to your “Me” time is really important because it acts as a chance to recharge and have the energy to get back into the swing of day-to-day life and all that comes with it.
To many, the idea of scheduling “Me” time on a daily basis is confusing as many do not know what to do during that special time. To help you out we have some ideas on how to make the most of that time. You can spend your “Me” time by going for a walk and maybe listening to some music or an audiobook, the fresh air can be rejuvenating. For a bit of fun, if you’re a movie buff, you can take the afternoon off and go to the movies or go on a binge-watching spree from the comfort of your couch. A tough but really effective trick to making the most of your ‘Me’ time is if you practice a social media detox one hour per day and use that time to instead do any fun activity you usually wouldn’t have the time for.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter what new habit you shoot for to up your new year, the change is always good and will lead to growth and self-development even if it takes months. The process may be slow but you will reap the rewards and over time, the effort will prove sustainable.
