In keeping with yesterday’s post about giving yourself grace and tacking on “when possible” to your goals for the new year, I wanted to share a couple of articles and books that can steer you in positive direction as you look at your own goals for the year.
The first article from CNet addresses that perennial favorite: This year I’m going to (pick one) get in shape, lose 10 pounds, run a marathon, work out every single day. Gyms are packed for the entire month of January, then February rolls around and meh, not so much. This article has some great ideas for incremental, achievable goals, with suggestions like “walk more” as opposed to “run 5 miles a day, every day, even though I haven’t run 1 mile in years”.
The Simplicity Habit offers a straightforward explanation of James Clear’s habit stacking technique from his book Atomic Habits. Attaching a new habit to an old one is simple and logical, and adding small, incremental changes can have a lasting and significant impact. I love habit stacking because it allows you to use what you already do to achieve a new goal—efficient and effective, two of my favorite things!
And finally, a book I’ve talked about before: https://lauravanderkam.com/books/tranquility-by-tuesday/ Really, I like all of her books and her podcasts (The Best of Both Worlds with Sarah Hart-Unger, Before Breakfast, and The New Corner Office). Tranquility By Tuesday is a great set of guidelines for being productive AND enjoying life more. The guidelines are immanently reasonable and easily achievable: give yourself a bedtime, move by 3 pm every day, three times a week is a habit, and so on. Nothing revolutionary, but all are sensible and, again, easily achievable; like the habit stacking suggestions, each will have a significant impact on your goals and your day-to-day productivity and enjoyment.
I’m linking my blogpost from last year about Tranquility By Tuesday that includes a copy of her graphic 9 Practical Rules For Achieving Tranqulity: https://www.protocolsc.com/post/women-who-lead-women-who-read