The No.1 tip for achieving your new year's resolution

A well-known habit-building framework outlined by author Charles Duhigg in his book, The Power of Habit, is made up of three stages:
 
1. Cue
The trigger that alerts your brain to go into auto mode. Common triggers are the time of day, a specific location, your phone buzzing, friends or family members, or even certain emotions.
2. Routine
The routine is the automatic behavior that gets triggered by a cue. It’s the physical or mental action taken because of the cue.
3. Reward
The reward is the benefit you get from the routine. Rewards make our brains happy, which is positive reinforcement and encouragement to continue the habit pattern.

With time, the cue-routine-reward loop gets programmed into your brain, and we start doing certain behaviors without much or any thought. These habit loops can be useful, like waking up and automatically brushing your teeth. But some may not be as good, like snacking on a bag of chips every time you turn on Netflix.
 
The trick to changing a habit, is to switch the routine, and leave everything else intact.
 
Here’s an example from a client I worked with recently. 
 
Cue – 2:45pm. 30-minute round trip to pick up kids from school. 
Routine – Stop at Starbucks and get a Mocha Frappuccino. 500 Calories!!
Reward – Tastes good, caffeine and dopamine hit. 
 
After a change in routine this then became:
 
Cue – 2:45pm. 30-minute round trip to pick up kids from school. 
Routine – Grab a zero-calorie drink – Flavored sparking water/ tea – Drive past Starbucks.
Reward – Major reduction in calories, getting healthier, losing weight, saving money.
 
The start of a new year is all about new beginnings, fresh starts and new year’s resolutions! However, research shows that 12 months after setting a resolution only 9% of people are successful.  
 
Set yourself up for success this year by identifying some negative, cue – routine – reward loops and change them to positive, healthier ones. This will give you a real chance of joining the 9% of people who succeed with their new year’s resolutions.