Or maybe you’re not the resolution-making type. Maybe you’ve tried and failed one too many times to think you can psyche yourself up for making big changes.
If you’ve already slid back into the old routine, or if you have just plain given up on ever making big changes to your life, or if you have a lurking sense that these New Year’s habits might not last much more than a few days, you’ve got good reason to feel “stuck in a rut.”
I read recently that only 8% of people will keep their New Year’s Resolutions. Most people, it seems, fail to make big changes in their life this way, and odds are, you’re one of them.
But if you have the mental capacity to read these words right now, and if you’re able to self-reflect and consider how well you’re doing (or not doing), I have good news for you. You can change. Big time.
Those people in the 8% are not just lucky, or more highly motivated, or more disciplined. They just had a moment when they made a fundamental, deep in their bones decision to be different. Not do different, but be different.
If you’re stuck in a rut, you can’t just decide to get out of the rut. You need a new rut. You need a new normal.
I recently met a woman who lost over a hundred pounds through healthy lifestyle changes. You could tell her transformation had been very, very meaningful to her. I asked her, “Can you tell me what made you decide to make the change? What was the moment that made you decide to get healthy?” She looked me right in the eye and said, “Yeah, I can tell you the day I decided to change. It was the day that I got on an airplane, but I couldn’t get the seatbelt around me and I had to ask for a seat belt extender. That was the day I decided to change.”
Your moment doesn’t have to be that dramatic. It could be as simple as sitting right where you are, reading these words, and deciding, right now, to get a new rut. Set a new normal for yourself. Be different. Be the you that you are longing to be. Then go carve you out a new rut in life. Why not?