New Year's Resolutions - The Psychology of Behaviour Change
New Year’s Resolutions & Behaviour Changes
Join psychologist, Dr. Margaret Penfold, as she provides some tips on building intentional and achievable new year’s resolutions in a compassionate and loving way.
Did you make any new year’s resolutions this year? How are they going?
Congratulations on giving it a go, even if it’s not going the way you hoped at times. Setting goals or intentions is a great first step to getting more in touch with what is important to you.
Below are some ideas I’ve come across over the years about the psychology of behavior change that can help you as you go forward:
Guide Yourself Back
Take it easy on yourself. If you’ve already slipped from your goals or intentions, know that it’s normal for us to have a mixture of moves towards and away from what we want and what is important to us. You can practice guiding yourself back to towards moves as many times as you need to.
Add More To Your Life
State the behaviours you will do MORE of. For example, if your goal is “eating healthier” or “losing weight”, what would we see you doing to make that happen? Maybe this means eating more fruits or veggies per day or walking an extra 10 minutes or an extra 1,000 steps per day.
Add Some Friction
Add friction for behaviors you want to do less. Organise your environment so that it’s more difficult to mindlessly engage in the behavior you’re trying to change. For example, if you’re trying to reduce screentime on your devices, you could experiment with settings for a time limit on devices that requires entering a password to get more time. You can still have more screentime if you want it, but we’re inserting an extra step in the process so that you can become more aware of the choice.
Set resolutions with intention and self-compassion this year.
Add some Ease
Add ease for behaviours you want to do more. For example, if you’re having challenges with getting yourself to exercise more, maybe you pack your gym bag the night before with all that you will need to get out the door, or maybe you pick out a workout or yoga video the night before and bookmark it so you can find it easily the next day.
Try PAIRING SOME HABITS
Pair something enjoyable with the behavior you’re trying to do more. For example, inviting a friend to come with you for a walk, or listening to your favorite podcast while you’re on an exercise machine.
Dr. Margaret Penfold is a psychologist at Wolseley Wellness Centre. She blends a client-centered approach with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) approaches. Dr. Penfold has appointments available for individuals aged 18 to 65 at our Corydon Avenue location. To book an appointment or for more information please call us at (204) 775-5521.