Tag Archives: Habit

Five Keys to Your New Years Resolution (and mine)

Welcome to 2018!

Did you make a new years’ resolutions? Have you managed to keep it through the first day of the new year? If so, congratulations. I’m sure you’re doing better than most folks.

I’ve never really been one to make resolutions. More precisely, I’ve dabbled in resolutions in the past, but never followed through on them. But, as the saying goes “if at first you don’t succeed….” Here’s what I’m resolving to do in 2018, and hope the five keys work for you as well. Please read to the end. There is a way you can help.

Five Keys to Your New Years Resolution

  1. Making a Public Commitment
  2. Have an Accountability Partner
  3. Be Realistic
  4. Habit Stacking
  5. Ask for Help

Step 1: Make a Public Commitment

This will be done as soon as I hit “Publish.” Of course, your “public” commitment might be to anyone who will help you with step 2.

Step 2: Have an Accountability Partner

I intend to have an accountability partner from among the fine agile coach team at my employer, AgileThought.

Step 3: Be Realistic

At times, it feels like sharing ideas needs to be  large, completely unique, or world-changing. This year, I’m just striving to share more of what I find interesting. It may not be revolutionary, but hopefully it at least sparks some conversations.

Ever since I started working as “an agile coach,” I’ve had a vague notion that I should do more public writing. Or, if not writing, I need to share my ideas and experience through conference presentations or sharing at user groups. There have been periods of time where I was fairly consistent in sharing, and there were times where I went completely silent. But, with the new year upon me, I’m going to give it a go. I’ll be posting a blog article at least once a week and tweeting something each day.

Step 4:  Habit Stacking

I’ve started reading the book Habit Stacking by S.J. Scott. This book boasts the subtitle “127 Small Changes to Improve Your Health, Wealth, and Happiness.” I’m skeptical about the subtitle’s claims, but there is an interesting notion about building habits and putting a bunch of small activities together into a single time-slot. So, that will be one of the experiments I will be running. And, I’ll let you know how that goes in a future post.

Step 5: Ask for Help

I could use your help.  If you find something interesting, please leave a comment. If you disagree, leave a comment. Just feel like saying “hi?” Leave a comment. I expect to learn from the feedback, so please leave a note.

What do you think?  What has worked for you in the past? Please leave a comment.