How many times have you started a New Year’s Revolution and never finished it? I know I have 🙋🏻‍♀️ 

Whether that’s going to the gym more,  dating more consistently, or any other goal you want to accomplish this year, people usually start at the beginning of the year with New Year’s resolutions. But they don’t start their New Year’s resolutions with a plan in place to make it happen. That’s why I’m going to give you 3 tips to actually stick with New Year’s resolutions. 

This episode is inspired by one of my favorite books, Atomic Habits, so if you haven’t read that already, I would definitely give it a listen for a more in-depth explanation. But for now, we’re going to talk about how you can implement a strategy to achieve your New Year’s resolution without burning out. If you’re looking for an accessible way to build lasting habits in the new year, this episode is for you! 

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Episode Transcript:

Erika: Hello, hello, and welcome back to this week’s episode, the first episode of the new year. Happy 2024. I feel like 2023 went by in the blink of an eye and 2024 feels like it is like, we’re really just going to hit the ground running this year. 

Okay. I wanted to start off this podcast episode by reading off an Apple podcast review. This one is by Wander Ale and it says amazing podcast with real stories. This show is raw and honest, real stories that have brought me inspiration, food for thought, and put me into action. Love what Erica is doing and this movement.

Ale, thank you so much for leaving that review. I feel like it’s been a minute since I’ve looked through the reviews. And every time I do, it’s just a reminder as to why this podcast was started in the first place. And I really did delay starting this podcast because I wanted to do it right. I wanted to ensure that we had systems in place to ensure we were consistent.

And I just appreciate the love from. every single one of you, because every story that I’m tagged in, every DM that I get, it does not go unnoticed. And I just appreciate you all so much because without you, this podcast would not exist. So thank you all so much. Thank you, Ale, for leaving that review. If you have not left a review, that is how podcasts grow.

So please do take some time out of your day to leave a review, hopefully a five-star review and just like anything that you’ve really taken away from this. The other way that you can also help us grow is sharing one of your favorite episodes or some of your favorite episodes with a friend. and again, I appreciate you all so, so much.

What I wanted to talk to you all about today was actually about New Year’s resolutions. So some people either fall in the bucket of like, yes, New Year’s resolutions. I’m going to completely change my life this year. And it’s just naturally a new, I guess, um, it’s naturally a good time to reflect because it’s almost this new beginning for all of us.

Obviously, there’s things like your birthday. That’s your kind of like new beginning and fresh start the new year. Is where we all are just in this energy of intention and like what it is that we want to bring into the new year. So people either fall into the camp of like, yes, resolutions or like, no, I hate resolutions.

Right? And. A lot of times people will start out really motivated and I think the research shows by like February whatever you were doing as your New Year’s resolution, most people drop it by the time February comes around. And the reason why people don’t tend to stick to resolutions is because they try to do too much.

So what I want to help you do today is I want to give you three tips to stick to your New Year’s resolution and to also pick something that’s actually going to help you be a better person, be healthier without overdoing it. Sometimes we think that we need to do more, but when we do more, it’s actually really difficult because, One of the books I recommend is called Atomic Habits and it goes into habit formation and how to break habits, how to create new habits.

I would even recommend that you just go to YouTube and look up Atomic Habits Summary and you’ll kind of get the gist of the book. And if you like it, then you could either get the audiobook or you can get the physical book. But here are my three tips for New Year’s resolutions. So, the first one is to pick a simple New Year’s resolution.

People tend to give up because they put so much on their plate and they don’t have an actionable plan to execute it. Research shows us that it actually takes 60 days to form a habit. So my advice is to start with just one habit. And then when you have that one habit, you can add a new habit, right? So you don’t have to have one resolution for 12 months.

12 months is a long time, right? Like what if You checked in with yourself with like, okay, does this resolution still feel aligned with me? Is this something I want to keep doing inside my group program? Courage Driven Latina, we have everybody pick a courage project was, which is something that they work towards and we have them pick a very simple project.

And once we are a couple months into the project, we have them look into it to see if it’s still something that’s aligned or to see if it’s something that they want to change. So. Because research shows us that it takes 60 days to form a habit, then you can, after those 60 days, you can add a new habit and it doesn’t feel like you’re learning a bunch of new things at once or trying to do everything at once.

So let’s say that you’re like, okay, this is the year I’m going to go to the gym, but I’m also going to eat healthy and I’m also going to. Um, stop drinking soda and then I’m going to stop watching TV. Like that’s a lot if you are already in the habit of watching TV every day, if you’re already in the habit of drinking soda every day, and if you’re not in the habit of going to the gym, you’re pretty much setting yourself up for failure by doing all of those different things.

So, one of the questions that I would have you ask yourself is, if you’re in the middle of picking something of all those different things I mentioned, it’s like, which one is going to make everything else easier to do? And maybe it’s only going to the gym. Maybe you still let yourself Drink soda. Maybe you still let yourself, uh, watch some TV.

Like, what if your one thing was just going to the gym? And then maybe just naturally you’ll stop watching so much TV because you’re spending your evenings at the gym, right? And maybe just naturally you stop drinking so much soda because you’re drinking water while you’re working out. Because who wants to drink soda when they’re working out?

So. You’re going to want to pick one simple thing and a question that I want you to ask yourself is if I could only pick one, which one’s the one going, that’s going to have the most impact.

And again, just because it’s the beginning of the year, it doesn’t mean that you need to make all of your changes starting on January 1st. You have 365 days in the year, right? So you might as well start small. And build on top of it because that is what’s going to create sustainable change. Even, you know, just at the beginning of this podcast, I just shared with you all how I delayed starting this podcast.

And the reason I delayed starting this podcast was because I was first looking to get consistent with the way that I was showing up on Instagram. I was looking to gather more data from the way that I coach my clients. Like, where do you all think the ideas from this podcast come from? They come from me working with my clients.

And if. I would have just started this podcast. I’m sure that, you know, it would have picked up some traction, but not in the way that it did. Because I started it once I had almost these other building blocks already set up. I already had a following. I already had a personal brand. I already knew how to create content.

I already had team members who can help me with things.So pick one simple thing that’s going to make a big impact and it’s, you’re naturally, especially if you’re listening to this podcast, you’re probably an overachiever and you’re probably like, it has to be difficult and it’s gonna feel like, no, that’s too easy.

I have to do something else. Let it feel easy. That’s the hard part. The hard part is letting it feel easy, but that’s what I need you to do for this new year’s resolution. It has to be so simple that it becomes just like a habit because if you make it too difficult, there’s a lot of resistance there and there’s so many things that can get in the way if it’s difficult.

So make it accessible. Pick one thing. Okay. The second tip that I have for you to ensure that you stick to your New Year’s resolution Be very clear about how you will execute your New Year’s resolution. Okay, so let’s say, let’s just stick to the gym example because that’s what we talked about earlier.

Okay, when are you going to go to the gym? What gym are you going to go to? What time are you going to go to the gym? Um, what are you, what like kind of machines are you going to use or like what kind of workouts are you going to do? I mean, don’t get me wrong. You don’t need your whole like workout schedule or anything like that.

But you do have to be very clear about how you will execute this resolution. So let’s say that it is, I’m going to stop drinking soda. Let’s say you went that route. Well, okay. What, what is it that you’re going to do? What are you going to drink? Are you allowed to drink lemonade? Are you allowed to drink iced tea?

Um, are you gonna like donate all the soda that you have inside of your house right now? Are you gonna stop buying it? Are you gonna replace something? Like what are you swapping with it? And whenever you read Atomic Habits, he talks about how It’s not really possible to break a habit What you actually need to do is replace an existing habit with a new habit So funny because it’s the same with thought work if you are one of my clients then you know We use the self-coaching model By Brooke Castillo, uh, which is essentially a model, a tool to help you reframe your thoughts.

And the same goes for thoughts. Like we can’t create, we can’t stop thinking a thought. What we actually have to do is we have to replace the thought with a new thought. And it’s the same with habits. So just to quickly summarize what we’ve done so far. We, the first tip was pick one simple New Year’s resolution.

The second one is be very clear about how you will execute it, and I mean, I would go as far as, um, put it on your calendar and, uh, have a community around you, right, to, like, keep you accountable.

And my last tip. Is allow yourself to pivot, allow yourself to make changes. I said this when I was talking about tip number one, let’s say that you’ve committed to going to the gym five times a week and then you go to the gym and it’s always extremely busy and you can’t get your machine. So you just naturally stop going, allow yourself to pivot.

What can you do? Like, what was the goal of you going to the gym? Was it to get movement in? Okay, well, can you do that by going to the park instead or, you know, just think about different seasons. Like, what if during the spring or the summer, it’s a perfect time to go run outside around a lake by your house, but maybe once it’s winter, that’s not really that feasible.

Or what if, you know, you can’t go run outside in the winter because it’s already dark. So allow yourself to pivot with how it is that you are executing your New Year’s resolution. And what I say, what I mean also by allowing yourself to pivot, sometimes we get in this all-or-nothing mentality and it’s like, Oh, if I can’t execute the resolution, exactly how I thought I was going to do it.

Like, why am I going to do it? Right? What’s the point now? But I want you to know that even if you don’t do it a hundred percent, it’s still better. To do it. So let’s say like sticking with the gym example, let’s say you can’t make it five times a week, but you start at least going two or three times a week, right?

Or once a week, like that’s better than not going at all. And sometimes again, we get into this all or nothing mentality when being able to pivot and be flexible is also really important because putting in some effort is always going to be better than no effort at all. And I’m just going to throw in a bonus one, which I kind of talked about with number two, but accountability.

So if you have a friend of yours who also wants to do, who also wants to. Execute something similar to you, maybe going to the gym or maybe eating healthier or maybe starting, starting a journaling practice or maybe giving dating a shot this year. I mean, hey, it’s like whatever it is that you want to work on finding somebody who’s going to hold you accountable and somebody that you can talk to whenever things get challenging or difficult or somebody who can check in with you.

And you can check in with them. Accountability goes really, really far. And as I’m giving you all these tips, I’m talking about them in the context of New Year’s resolutions, but I’m essentially giving you all tips based on what I have seen work for my clients inside of Courage Driven Athena to execute their courage project.

And accountability is the number one thing. When somebody teams up with somebody, They don’t give up that easily because they help each other through the difficult times. 

Okay, so just to recap, my three tips are pick one simple New Year’s resolution and pick the one that’s going to make a big impact. Even if it feels really simple and really easy. Tip number two is be very clear about how it is that you’re going to execute your New Year’s resolution. How are you going to do it?

When are you going to do it? Can you put it on your calendar? And then number three is allow yourself to pivot, forget the all-or-nothing mentality, be flexible with how it is that you are executing this New Year’s resolution. I almost said courage project. I almost said courage project. And if you are new around here and you have no idea what a courage project is, it is a project that My clients work on inside of my group program, and it has to hear the rules for the courage project.

It has to scare you. It has to excite you and it has to make the world a better place. So some people are working on businesses. Other people are working on launching podcasts. Other people are working on starting a journaling practice to build confidence. Other people are negotiating salaries at work.

Other people are getting back. In the dating game, all the stuff. And if this sounds appealing to you, then I invite you to join the wait list for Courage Driven Latina.

You can do that by going to the show notes. And now let’s get back to talking about this. And now let’s get back to talking about New Year’s resolutions. So, those are my main three tips, and then there’s the bonus tip, right, about accountability.

I would love to hear what you all pick as your one simple New Year’s resolution. So, once you have it, you can either DM me or take a screenshot of this podcast episode, share it to your stories. Let us know what your resolution is because trust me, just sharing it is going to help keep you accountable as well.

And be sure to share this with any of your friends. Maybe if you want to like do an accountability buddy system with somebody. Share this episode with them so that you’re on the same page. And I think that’s all y’all. This was a short episode. A short, short episode. I want to wish you all an amazing 2024.

You know what we’ll do, actually? Let’s pull a card. I’m gonna pull a card and I’m just gonna have you pick pile A or pile B. And then, um, I will give you a little bit of a reading. One second, let me grab my, my animal cards.

Okay, I’m pulling from the animal power deck.

Alright, two cards flew out, so I have pile A and pile B. So go ahead and pick your pile just in your head. Don’t overthink it. Whatever came to your mind first. If you need to pause this, you can pause it so that you can think about it. Pile A got the card of whale, which is communicate clearly. Let me read the actual description.

Whales

known for their beautiful outwardly singing can enhance their ability to express and communicate. When a whale shows up for you, consider whom you could have better communication with. Is there someone your intuition has been telling you to check in with or give more attention to? This is your wake up call to listen and act on those nudges.

Because whale opera also represents healing ancestral or lineal lineage traumas, you can call on whale to help you have healing conversations with family members. Be honest with yourself and be open. Be honest with yourself and open the communication portal. You have the most powerful ally by your side now.

Okay, so if you are doing some ancestral healing, the whale call calls you to communicate clearly. And I would also add with The intention of love as well. Okay. If you chose a pile B, you got snake and snake says welcome higher guidance. So before I even just like read the description off, um, I just want to call out that both of the cards are this like beautiful Indigo color and Indigo is a color that’s almost in between.

Um, like purple and blue and it’s just affiliated with, uh, being like spiritually connected and snake itself, which is again, pile B snake. I used to, I think just Catholicism, right? Because I grew up in a Catholic family. And then when I got older, I went to a Christian middle school and snakes were always seen as something so evil, but now that I’ve gotten older and learn just more about.

The animal snakes represent change and shedding and snake is also, um, Oh wait, no, that’s a spider connected to the divine feminine spiders connected to the divine feminine, but snake is obviously connected to like Kundalini and all of that. So let me go ahead and read off the snake card.

But I shared all of that to say if you chose pile B and you got snake and you got a little freaked out, I just want to validate that experience because I was, I’ve always been terrified of snakes until, until recently. I mean, don’t get me wrong. If there was a snake in my room, room, I’d probably freak out, but snakes also just represent a lot of like shedding.

Okay, here’s the description. When Snake appears, it’s a sign that change is on the horizon and that new spiritual, sexual, or creative forces are rising within you. Snake signifies a time of transformation. Your old snake skin is ready to be shed so you can move forward with new profound power and clarity.

When snake beckons, it’s important for you to be more in tune than ever with your higher self. Connect with your higher self through practices like meditation or breath work and listen to the intuitive messages that present. What gifts and powers are you, are hiding beneath your old skin and are ready to reveal themselves to the world.

That was beautiful. All right, y’all. So with that, have a fabulous 2024. I will see you here next week. Sending you all so, so much love and don’t forget to rate and review the podcast as well as share it with a friend. All right, see you next week.