New Year New You?

Subtraction By Addition

All to often people overload themselves with outlandish New Year's Resolutions. 

Lose 20 Pounds

Read 20 books

Save $10,000 this year

ect.

Although these are valiant goals they are often overwhelming and cause out fiery hot start to soon fizzle out. So instead of reaching at least half of our goal, we often give up and complete little to none of it. 

It takes on average 21 days to form a habit. The problem with our New Year's Resolutions is the lack of structure and our often formidable numbers. To help add structure and to start 2019 not only on the right foot but down the right path. By adding a specific number of small but meaningful tasks to each week for a month; rewarding success, punishing failures and working with a partner we can create subconscious habits by the end of the month that will last through the year and longer.

The best way to understand what I believe is a good way to create these habits is to look at my weekly scorecard. 

This is the checklist of my partner and I for the upcoming week, We keep it in excel because it is easy to access and allows for automated calculations. We both chose activities of varying difficulty  we thought would bring fulfillment to our lives. This is a basic template that if anyone decides to use should feel free to change however they like.

To keep you and your partner on task, I suggest you create both weekly and monthly rewards/punishments that work for you and your partner. For Stephen and I, every task we miss each week costs us $5, at the end of the month we are going to the casino to play with our partner's money. We're still debating ideas of rewarding a perfect week or whether each week is a head to head competition. 

As we start next week, I will continue to update on progress and overall change. If anyone tries the system let me know about your results. It is time to change "New Year, New Me" to "New Year, New Habits" 

Good Luck All,

NB