How to accomplish your new year resolutions in 2020

Now that you have set your new year resolutions, you have to make sure they are completed.

We know it is common for people to give up as the going gets tough.

It is very easy to revert to your routine.

Self-discipline is tough and perseverance in short supply.

This is because we are cognitive misers and every good action you try to take would consume some brain power and we want to save that energy.

Imagine you have a cup filled with cognitive energy each day. You probably used most of it at work and by the time you get home, you are pretty drained. The thought of eating healthy by whipping up a nutritious meal requires more energy to overcome the inertia. Hence it is likely you would just settle with a quick processed food option and reasoned that you deserve it after a hard day’s work.

This is why most resolutions do not get accomplished because they take too much energy and the willpower is insufficient to overcome the resistance. And it isn’t your fault because many things demand your life energy and have little leftover to deal with your goals.

Self-discipline is over-rated. Structure is under-rated.

What you should do is to focus on designing a structure in your life - first you shape the structure then the structure shape you.

The structure should reduce resistance to the things you set out to do and add resistance to things you want to stop doing. Basically a structure helps you redesign the paths of least resistance which your behaviour will gravitate to. A well designed structure will achieve desired behavioural change more effectively than sole reliance on self-discipline.

For example, make healthy food more accessible. Put apples around the house and lock up the snacks.

Or, log out of your social media apps during weekdays and only login in the weekends. Put your phone in another room when you work or read or play with your kids.

Or, sign up with the gym that lies along the route of your daily commute instead of the cheapest one that is too out of the way.

Businesses know this very well and a trip to the supermarket shows that. It is deliberate that the layout is structured in a way to make you meander from shelf to shelf and convenient to-go candies at the checkout area. Products placed at the eye-level is not a coincidence. They understand structure modifies behaviour.

Hence, if you are serious about completing your new year resolutions, you should start to design the structure in your life and not leave things to chance or your self-discipline.