In the dawn of a new decade, it's natural to think about what changes it might bring into your life. While not everyone participates in the practice of setting New Years’ resolutions, it’s impossible to avoid the conversations. No one makes it through January without someone asking what their resolutions are.
The decision to make a big change to improve your life is so relatable; when people don’t, it’s probably because they know that studies have shown that 80% of people fail to keep their New Years’ resolutions and most people don’t even last an entire month, giving up on their goals as early as January 12.
The reason most people can’t keep up with their resolutions is because they make vague goals like “get healthier” or try to change too much too quickly. Psychologists agree that effective goal setting starts with concrete, small changes that accumulate over time, to eventually create the kind of lasting change that everyone is hoping for when they journal about their resolutions.
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One health app that’s helping people set concrete goals is Noom, which takes practices from leading psychological concepts and uses them to help people create sustainable change. Specially, Noom’s coaching method is based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment that helps people understand the things that trigger negative thoughts, compulsive actions, and unwelcome consequences. Noom’s highly trained specialists help people understand the impulses behind their unhealthy habits, set multiple achievable goals whose effects multiply each other, and gain a better understanding of how to make positive change in their lives.
From the psychological background, the Noom program understands that habits are actually one of our body’s ways of taking care of itself. Good habits keep our brains running efficiently, freeing up space for creativity and higher-level thinking. Unfortunately, our brains can’t distinguish between good habits and bad habits, which is why habits that are actually distructive to our bodies are so hard to break. Noom talks you through breaking bad habits with a four step process: identify your bad habit, replace it with different action, keep replacing it, but don’t beat yourself up if you falter. That last one is really important. This isn’t about keeping up a “streak” of going one hundred days straight without eating processed sugar. This isn’t about setting yourself up to fail like that. If you are trying to get off sugar and you eat a bite of your friend’s cookie, you haven’t “ruined” anything. You just have to forgive yourself for the slip and keep on keeping on.
When you’re working on yourself, Noom prompts you to start with small concrete goals, like avoid processed sugar all weekend or go to the gym twice this week. But Noom has lofty goals for you and everyone else who uses the app: They want to inspire significant change and lasting outcomes.
To begin Noom’s program, try out the app’s features and functions for free for fourteen days. If the app feels as intuitive and helpful as it’s designed to be, after the trial period, you’ll be matched with a personal goal specialist. They’ll begin their CBT-based coaching, helping you identify any thoughts or behaviors that keep you from achieving long term health goals. They’ll also teach you to set smaller, more quickly achievable goals that will serve as steps along your journey. Each week, your one-on-one session with your specialist will give you further insights into your own subconscious motivations and how you can counter them with sustained actions.
Get started now using Noom to help you set small goals, so you can keep your big ones. With a little expert guidance, you can be one of the 8% of people who actually keeps their resolutions.
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