New Week's Resolution - Week 2

nossmf · October 27

Welcome to the first week of the rest of your life! Now seems like a perfect time to select a New Week's Resolution.

What is a New Week's Resolution? It's exactly the same as a New Year's Resolution, with two important distinctions: it only lasts for one week, and you can start one any time you want, rather than just once per year.

So what's wrong with New Year's Resolutions? According to some quick Google research, just one thing: they DON'T WORK!

23% of people quit within the first week
43% quit by the end of January
80% quit by mid-February
92% fail to make it a full year

Why such high rates of failure? Probably because most resolutions fail to follow these simple steps from the SMART method:

Specific - "exercise more" is vague; "hit the gym twice this week" is specific
Measurable - did I go twice? Yes or no?
Achievable - "drink a gallon of water per day" may not be realistic; drink 8oz is
Relevant - if it doesn't matter to YOU, why bother?
Time-bound - keep your goal for this week something quick you can reach THIS week

With these thoughts in mind, what is ONE thing you want to do this week? Some examples may include:

Hit the gym two times this week
Cook a meal from scratch three times this week
Go to bed no later than 10pm every night
Limit myself to one alcoholic beverage this week
Finish two pages of my family photo album

...and so on. While this is very similar in nature to the famous "Just Give Me 10 Days" series, that challenge focuses primarily on weight loss and diet control, whereas this challenge is of a broader nature, including interpersonal relationships, home improvements, health and fitness and more. Just pick something specific you wish to focus upon, set a number goal you can reach (or not), and make status updates to document your progress. This will be a judgment-free zone: if you do not reach your goal, take the time to figure out why not (too big a goal, life happened, etc), and forgive yourself, because you can always try again next week.

nossmf · October 27

Getting setup for next week. My plan is to continue what I started last week, and add one more focus item every week as I go. Eventually older items will drop off the list, not because I no longer want to do them, but hopefully they will have become so ingrained a part of my daily routine that I no longer need to record them to make sure they get done.

Past focus items:
Floss every night before bed

New focus item:
Clean litter box daily - I'm guilty of glancing at the box some nights before bed and telling myself "it doesn't look that bad" and leaving it for the next day. My cats would very much prefer I do this daily, whether it looks like it needs cleaning or not.

Adventurista · October 29

Past - in bed on time, stop screentime and do something r&r to wind down.

Adding wk 2, consistent get up a tad earlier in the morning, allow a bit of time to putter instead of all go rush.

AdahPotatah2024 · October 29

I am going to keep doing my linked in courses for 1 hour each workday and this week try working on etsy/art 30 minutes every day. I'm going to schedule time for these, as well, and see if that helps me stick to my plan!

nossmf · October 29

Floss before bed - check!
Clean cat litter - check!

Adventurista · October 29

Went to bed on time, got up too. Check

Struggling tho... wide awake bedtime, sleepy at wake time. Urgh.

nossmf · October 30