How-to Keep Those New Year Resolutions
Preppers are awesome. The amount of foresight, planning, and discipline needed to properly provide and prepare for their families is staggering, and yet preppers soldier on. But preppers are human, too - and, like everyone else, might have some problems keeping those New Year resolutions, too.
It is a daunting task; taking on the responsibilities of extra planning and of buying all those emergency storage items. Where to start? How in the world are we going to step up our game in 2018? Or, rather - how are we going to FOLLOW-THROUGH with all our prep goals this year? Not to worry - we have some tips and tricks to keep you on track!
A word about "resolutions": Contrary to popular belief, resolutions are NOT about willpower; they're about ACTION. And ACTION comes from HABIT. You can't will yourself to consciously keep up all those reses, all year long (You'd be exhausted!). Instead, you must create a HABIT of doing, to the point where you don't have to think about it much after awhile; you'll just naturally behave that way.
SO... how do we form new, better HABITS for 2018?
Start small. Even giant goals are made up of smaller, more manageable goals - and those small goals are achieved by even smaller, consistent actions. Choose small actions to habitualize - and don't binge! For instance, you can't lose weight by exercising for eight hours in one day then never going back to the gym. Instead, you must go to the gym for 30 minutes, every day. When stockpiling food stores, you don't have to go on a massive shopping spree in January, then spend the rest of the year sitting on your butt. Instead, make a habit to overbuy just a few items every time you go to the store. Or, begin with collecting items for a 24-hour emergency kit for each member of your family. Then, you can later expand to a 3-day emergency kit, then 2 weeks' worth of supplies, then 1 month, and so on.
21 days. It takes 21 days of doing something consistently to ingrain the action into your mind and create a habit. Again, bingeing cannot accomplish this.
Reward yourself. Forming habits are connected to the reward center of our brains. So, every day, take time to give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back for each positive action you did. Remind yourself at bedtime that you can sleep well tonight, having done something toward accomplishing your goals. Don't beat yourself up for what you didn't do; concentrate on what you did.
Take time for gratitude. Make a point to take a mental inventory of what you do have and remind yourself to be grateful for that, instead of dwelling on what you haven't accomplished yet. You will; just be patient with yourself!
Make (and keep!) a doctor appointment. Get a checkup and fix anything wrong with your health. You can't keep up any good habits if you are physically ill. Even a slight blood sugar imbalance or high blood pressure gone unchecked will interfere with your ability to be disciplined and get things done, not to mention the potential to get worse over time.
Cardio. Make sure to exercise your heart - whether it be by power walking, jogging, pilates, boxing, or etcetera - because prepping requires stamina. Everybody should be doing this, anyway. And, yes, we realize that working cardio into your daily routine might be a whole New Year's resolution unto itself. Remember the 21-day rule and start a new habit, if you haven't already.
Replace a bad habit with good ones. You cannot, not, NOT undo a bad habit! You can only create new good habits that will eventually cancel out the bad one. This is why people fail at resolutions about quitting things - smoking, overeating, etc. You can't not do something. The trigger is there, the urge is there, and you have to replace the old unwanted resulting action with a new, positive action instead. For instance, start a new habit of drinking water. Drink water every time you want to put something in your mouth. Pretty soon, you'll be reaching for the water bottle before reaching for that cigarette.
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