According to many, setting goals that are too ambitious for us to accomplish can lead to failure. Some have heard “the one who fails to plan, plans to fail.” What if we incorporate this idea into setting goals for ourselves and ensure that we are planning smaller steps on how to reach the bigger end goal? It’s not uncommon to hear someone say that they started a diet and did not stick to it, or wanted to begin walking every day and find that they only took 700 steps on average for the week. Finding that you were unable to accomplish a goal you had in mind will only make you feel less motivated to create another goal, but if we plan to create a habit that we know will push us to see a newer self, we may be able to find ourselves happier in the end.

So how do we even get into the mindset to create a habit that leads to a newer, happier self? We can find the small things that make us happy to take the first step. Ask yourself, do you enjoy doing activities with people? Then, instead of trying to walk every day by yourself, which you will find unenjoyable in the long run, find a walking group or a friend who will be dependent on you to walk every day. This way, you push yourself into a habit that will feel easy to do without feeling like a burden. Maybe your goal is to lose weight. Instead of finding a diet that is hard to keep as a lifestyle, pinpoint healthful foods that can be incorporated into your daily diet. For instance, adding one vegetable to your plate each day can lead to being more healthful than starting a diet that will only last 2 weeks. Keep in mind that small steps lead to big changes and is the main way to create a proper habit.

Once you feel that this small change has started to make an impact on your overall well-being, you'll be able to say, It's a “New year, new habit” instead of feeling like it's habitually a new year of no changes.