5 Tips to Achieve New Year Resolution. How Yoga Can Help Us. 年始抱負継続できてますか？

(日本語は以下に続きます)

Why good habits are harder to keep than the bad ones?

Here is a million-dollar question. I wish I could be addicted to only good habits. Good ones never seem to stick with us especially when we have high aspirations. Now it is into the third week of 2020, to my surprise, something started to work for me.

Three years ago, I was never a runner. I would walk after running a round of track field.

1. Make it easy to swallow

2. Bundle it up with something you love

3. Reward yourself

4. Do it with your friends and family

5. Set a short term goal

1. Make it easy to swallow:

My running at the beginning was not running at all. I jogged one small circle around highschool filed track. That was it because my knee started hurting and my heart was pumping. I never tried to run more than what I can't take. If I had to start to run more than a mile. I would not have been able to keep it up.

2. Bundle it up with something you love

I love to chat with my friends and to listen to audiobooks. I always went outside when I received an invitation to jog from my friends. If I don't have a friend to run with, I brought the earbuds to listen to my book for a chapter.

3. Reward yourself

When I was able to run for more than three days a week, I treated myself with a movie, ice cream or more books to read on the weekend.

4. Do it with your friends, colleagues, and family

My friends were better athletes than I was but they were all supportive of me getting into the habit. So our conversation often branched out to what shoes we buy, where we go if we have knee pain, and which running competitions were good. When our mind is occupied with work, kids and other issues we also shared while we were running. My friend started logging food in an application with her daughter. She was able to keep doing it because texting her teenage daughter what she had for lunch kept her entertained and engaged with her with the habit.

5. Set a short term goal

Yes, running kept me stronger each and every day. I have gained physical resilience. But it wasn't obvious to me. I enrolled in races with my friends. Starting from 4 miles, then a half marathon. It was only six months after I started to run.

My policy at work used to be "We land my realistic goals if I aim high." So I made my goal setting too high that I struggle to achieve. And I always felt defeated. Every quarter, my goals setting was somehow to please my boss, and I stretch myself out very thin. I have achieved those goals, but I felt I dropped balls elsewhere; family and myself. My goal setting was not the accumulations of my small daily action plans, which I could manage comfortably. Then, I burned out in my corporate life too quickly.

Yoga practice refocuses your intention to achieve your goal and is a good reminder of your daily actions. "Ahimsa" is the first rule of "Yama" which means "Non-Violence" "Non-Harming." Setting achievable New Year Resolution, is "Ahimsa", practicing the principle of Yoga.

"Tapas" is the third rule of "Niyama" which means "Self-discipline." Following through the achievable goal setting is "Tapas" practicing another principle of Yoga.

良い癖なるものは継続しづらいですよね。悪い癖はあんなにも簡単に身に染み付いてしまうのに。特に目指すところが高すぎるとさらにたちが悪い。

2020に入って3週間目。意外なことにこの怠け者のわたしが継続してジョギングを続けられるという実績ができたのです。

自分の気づきからゴールに達成のために良い習慣を継続させるためのコツをつかんだ気がします。

1. 小さなアクションプラン

2. 好きなこと・ものと一緒にする

3. 自分へのご褒美

4. 家族や友人と共に

5. 短期の目標を作る

1. 小さなアクションプラン

片道2時間の通勤地獄と日平均５つのミーティングを毎日こなす3年目には考えられなかったことです。走る気力がなかったという方が正確でしょう。