It's about that time of year again - you know, the time when everyone (well, almost everyone) starts talking about their New Year's resolutions. I am just like everyone else in this regard - just to prove my case, I started this whole blog as a New Year's resolution! However, unlike the vast majority of resolutions that I have made, we are still going strong with this one. In fact, nearly 80% of New Year's resolutions fail by the month of February! Another commonly cited statistic suggests that only 8% of all individuals stick to their resolutions. So, what do the experts have to say about what we all should be doing to keep our resolutions? As it turns out, they have a lot to say. These sure-fired ways range from the simple to the complex. I have found a trick that has worked very well for me, and it's surprisingly easy.
Several years ago, I set a goal to lose weight by eating less and exercising more. I was looking for ways to track both my calories consumed and my calories burned. I ended up using a free app called My Fitness Pal. There are a number of apps that are freely available, so I am not saying that you should use this one in particular. However, one of the features that "My Fitness Pal" uses that I found extremely helpful is a "Days Streak" - in other words, every day that I logged either my diet or exercise, I received credit. After several days, I had built up a streak of consecutive days that I used the app. As the number of days in my streak increased, I felt this unbelievable pull to keep going in order to maintain my streak. Letting the streak get back to zero was just not an option that I found acceptable. At one time, my streak was well over 600 days!
Only this past year, I decided that I wanted to teach myself to read, write, and converse in German. I really had no particular reason other than wanting to learn to speak a different language. I thought that it would be easier to learn German, as I had at least some knowledge of the German language from taking it in high school and college. I used an app called Duolingo - it's another free app that basically helps you spend as little as 5-10 minutes per day writing, speaking, and listening to German. Again, the app has a built-in feature of a "Days Streak" - again, there is an unbelievable pull not to let the streak fall to zero!
A few years ago, the actor and comedian, Jerry Seinfeld, admitted that he too used the "Days Streak" method to meet the goal of writing comedy every day. Comedy is just like everything else - it requires practice. Every year, Seinfeld would buy a calendar, and every day that he practiced comedy, he would draw a big red "X" on the calendar day. He found, just as I did, an unbelievable pull to continue the streak of big red X's on the calendar.
I am not saying that this method will work for everyone. Admittedly, it's not always worked 100% perfectly for me - witness that my current "My Fitness Pal" streak stands at 50 days and my current "Duolingo" streak stands at only 4 days. However, I am here to tell you that there is a huge weight off my shoulders every day when I am able to see the streak counter on both these apps increase by one! It's just like a big red "X."
So, this year, for your own New Year's resolution, try Seinfeld's "big red X" method and see if it works for you. It may not work, but if it does, you may find that you are losing weight, exercising more, writing a blog, or even learning to speak German!
Auf Wiedersehen and Viel Gluck!
No comments:
Post a Comment