A new year is a great time for a reset. For 2020, an estimated 164 Million Americans made a New Year’s resolution. About 50% of all people make a resolution about getting healthy or losing weight and 49% of people resolve to save more money. The not-so-great thing is about 88% of people will give up on their resolution during the year. Yikes! Change is hard, but there is always time to get back on track and achieve your goals.
You may have heard that it takes 21 days to form a new habit. Well…that is wrong. Sorry! This generalization originated in the 1960s from the psychology work of Dr. Maxwell Maltz. Unfortunately it is more complicated than that because the time to form a consistent habit depends on what change you are trying to make. The real time can be anywhere from 18 days to up to 254 days!
The good news is that our brains like habits because these free up our mental resources to think and focus on other things. So any behavior can be learned or un-learned (think smoking) with the right effort and attention. But just know that the more time intensive or physically taxing the new habit, the more we have to practice and reinforce it until it just becomes part of what we do and who we are. So why do we fail to follow through or stay the course? Here are the three most common reasons:
Reason 1: We know the "what" but not the "why"
Where most people get tripped up is they know “what” they want to do, like lose 20 pounds this year, but they haven’t identified the “why”. People that can be very specific about what they want to accomplish and why are more likely to keep making progress. So as you think about changes or positive habits you want to see in your life in 2020, you also have to meditate and reflect on why those specific goals are important.
I’ll give you an example. My goal for 2020 was to launch and grow my podcast and blog. That is my what. But the thing that is equally or even more important is the why I’m doing it. I want to help other people stress less about their money and achieve their goals. There are definitely days where I don’t really want to research or write or record, but when those days happen I always think back to my why. You can’t help anybody by doing nothing!
So let’s go back to a fitness goal…specifically the one about losing 20 pounds. That is your what. But maybe the why is you want to have more energy to play with your kids. Or you want to lose the weight to set a good example for loved ones in your life so they can lose weight too. We all have our own why’s that drive and motivate us to learn, improve and grow as people. If you find your why, you will make it a lot more likely you will achieve your what.
Reason 2: We don't have social support
The next reason people don’t make it across the finish line is they lack accountability around them to keep them going. A key part of achieving a goal is having a social support network around you to hold you accountable. The benefits of social support have been studied numerous times, and we see many businesses built on the science of people helping people. A really famous one, maybe the most famous example, is Weight Watchers (they now go by just WW). They have created a billion dollar business all based on the importance of peer accountability.
I encourage everyone to find a buddy to keep them on track. You can ask a friend or co-worker to be your accountability partner. If that feels weird or awkward, it is easier than ever to connect to people with a shared passion or interest in your city or online. There are online groups and apps like Supporti that can help you get paired up with someone to keep you on track. Also there are Meet Up groups in most cities where you can find like-minded people to help you stay the course.
Reason 3: We are too focused on short-term success
That last really common reason people don’t see their resolutions completed is because they are focused too much on short-term, instant results and fail to see and commit to the long term nature of achieving goals. It is cliché to say but it is often true, “it is a marathon and not a sprint”.
Let’s take the weight loss example from earlier. If the goal is to lose 20 pounds in the year 2020, that means losing about 1.7 pounds per month. Most people get discouraged when they don’t lose 5 pounds in January and they stop going. But let’s break down losing 20 pounds by what we need to do every day.
Losing 20 pounds in a year means that you need to lose roughly half a pound a week which is 1750 calories (because one pound is 3500 calories). So that means that we need to cut back on 250 calories per day which is a the equivalent of a Grande Frappuccino from Starbucks. Or we can keep drinking our lattes and Frappuccinos and walk for 25 minutes a day to burn those 250 calories. The key is when you break it down into little, micro goals, it is much easier to make progress and stay on track.
We can do similar things with our money goals. It is great to know how much you want to save for the entire year…maybe it is $5000 for a big purchase. But the key is to break it down to what you need to do each day or week. To save $5000 in a year, you need to save about $13 a day. Add in a side hustle like we talked about in episode 4 and you’ll be well on your way to your goal. Just don’t lose site of the journey. All these things take time and we need to have patience. We also have to remember that in a given year, we always have time to bounce back if we get off track.
I hope you are achieving all your goals in 2020, and I hope Calm Cash can be a part of you being your best self. As always, here’s to a happier life and healthier wallet.