Resolutions feel huge, requiring a lot of mental bandwidth and loads of constant motivation to keep up. Resolutions are easy to decide on but tough to maintain daily.
Habits, on the other hand, are naturally easier to do. They are positive daily activities and actions, are brain-friendly, learned behaviors.

Resolutions Don't Work

Start small with something you already desire or like to do, to ease out the entire process for you right at the start.For example, if you plan to write more, why not buy a journal and a pen that you want to use, and keep them handy, facilitating the writing habit naturally.

Habits: Start Small

Choose a 'trigger' action you already do to initiate the new habit you want to form.

Trigger New Action

Whatever task you plan to do, make it as simple and doable as possible, removing any friction that can lead to putting it off.

Simple Actions

Create or adjust your environment to provide you with cues to take on the positive habit of action.

Adjusting Your Environment

Tell yourself what a good job you are doing, and get your brain to be happy, by celebrating even the smallest success.

Celebrate

Repeat your actions daily, while evaluating them on a weekly basis.
Enable faster growth of your positive habit by following the process of repetition and evaluation.

Repeat And Evaluate

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Inspired to make New Year's resolutions?
Don't. Build habits instead.
Why? Resolutions are big, bold actions that depend on motivation. They work against the brain's natural tendencies to save energy and act as a "mental couch potato," as described by UCLA professor and Director of Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory Dr. Matthew Lieberman in his <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Social-Why-Brains-Wired-Connect/dp/0307889106">book</a>.
It can take significant mental energy to determine what resolutions you want for the coming year. You then need to figure out how you're going to act on them.
If you're like most of us, you come up with visions of becoming more productive at work, managing your finances better, losing weight, etc. Then your good intentions fizzle out, as it's too hard to turn your visions into daily actions.
By contrast, habits are automatic routines that already make up 40% of your daily activity, according to <a href="https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140808111931.htm">Dr. Wendy Wood</a>, Provost Professor of Psychology and Business at the University of Southern California.
Habits are naturally brain-friendly, learned behaviors. You can do them quickly without thinking because they reside in your unconscious -- once you get the hang of them. Habits help you preserve energy for heavy-duty thinking, including decision making.
You can learn the skill of building habits. Back in December 2011, I learned the skill from <a href="https://www.bjfogg.com/">Dr. BJ Fogg</a>, an innovator, behavior scientist and founder/director of the Persuasive Tech Lab at Stanford University whom I've trained with on building habits.
A few months before, I had become a certified brain-friendly coach through the NeuroLeadership Institute. The coaching program had primed me to become more aware of and interested in the value of habits for myself and my clients.
But a disconnect existed between what the neuroscientists and psychologists were studying and what I needed and wanted. They tended to examine existing habits, rather than study how individuals form habits.
So when I discovered that BJ had been experimenting with skill-building for habits and had created a five-day online course called <a href="http://tinyhabitsacademy.org/">Tiny Habits</a>, I signed up.
My goal was to floss my teeth daily. By day three of the free program -- a Wednesday -- I was well on my way to adopting this new habit. In fact, since December 21, 2011, I've flossed my teeth at least once a day. The program taught me how to build itsy-bitsy habits without relying on motivation or willpower, which is incredibly brain-friendly.
I've taught the skill to the leaders I've coached. And they've have created and sustained helpful habits. For instance, one individual, call her Heather, had spent months talking about her wish to journal but made no progress until we worked together.
Here are the seven steps you, too, can learn to build habits. 1. Start with a small action or thought you desire to do, not should do, to make the entire process more pleasant for you. Make your first step tiny and specific to increase your chances of success. For Heather, I suggested she buy a journal and pen that she'd like to use and keep them in a handy spot.
2. Choose an anchor behavior that will trigger your new action. Heather's trigger was: After she experienced something notable with the transformational change project she was leading, she'd pull out her journal and write. For flossing, the trigger is: After I brush my teeth, I will floss.
3. Make the behavior simple to do. Heather's initial task was to carry her journal and pen with her. Then it became to jot down a few words. She'd later fill in the details when she had time.
4. Adjust your environment for success. Heather placed her journal and pen in the same spot in her briefcase where she could always find it to write. For me, taking the floss out of a drawer and putting it next to my toothbrush was the key to my triumph.
5. Celebrate to embed and rewire your brain. When we tell ourselves "good job" or something else that makes us feel good, we get a hit of dopamine in our brain. It sends signals that stimulate the brain's reward system and motor control. Besides giving us pleasure in the moment, it reinforces our chances for replicating this feeling -- and just as importantly -- the behavior in the future.
6. Repeat often, preferably daily. The repetition also helps the habit become automatic.
7. Evaluate and experiment. Each person's brain is unique. What works for Heather, my other clients and me won't necessarily work for you. By actively trying different ways, you'll find a better solution for yourself, which makes you more committed to the new behavior.
Over time, which can be days or weeks, depending on the habit and your brain, your new habit is stored in your unconscious, specifically your basal ganglia.
Because the habit is now automatic, you don't need to expend energy or working memory from your prefrontal cortex - also referred to as the executive - to remember to do the behavior.
And that makes it easier to grow the habit into a bigger habit, assuming you follow the structure and process that works for you.
Building tiny habits transformed my life. Have you ever talked about your New Year's Resolutions this way?
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Inspired to make New Year's resolutions? Don't. Build habits instead. Why? Resolutions are big, bold actions that depend on motivation. They work against the brain's natural tendencies to save energy and act as a "mental couch potato," as described by UCLA professor and Director of Social Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory Dr. Matthew Lieberman in his book.

Don't Make Resolutions, Build Habits Instead