No More Broken Resolutions: 2 Powerful Strategies for Building Habits That Last

As January 1st looms, millions of people are gearing up to make New Year's resolutions, but here’s the sad reality: 90% of people abandon their goals by February, and only 8% actually follow through until the end of the year. So why does the typical grand proclamation—like “Sure, I’ll go to the gym every day”— so often flop? 

The problem is, it’s unrealistic and unsustainable. But don’t panic, there IS a better way. In this episode, I share a simpler, more effective approach that’s not only easier to stick to, but also way more successful in the long run. Ready to make this the year you actually follow through? Tune in now to discover two top strategies that will help you build lasting habits and set yourself up for success in 2025!


References

Atomic Habits by James Clear

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Audio Stamps

00:44 - Most New Year's resolutions fail quickly, making big goals less effective.

02:40 - Building identity-based habits that align with who you want to become is more sustainable long term.

04:16 - Dr. Rentea gives personal examples of identity-based habits that have worked for her.

06:27 - We learn the power of small, easy "1 percent upgrades" for lasting progress.

08:25 - Dr. Rentea encourages writing down three identity-based goals and the 1% upgrades that will help you consistently work toward them every day.


Quotes

“I want to recommend that you work on building different systems and habits and not making grand proclamations.”

“I want you to think about, ‘Who do I want to actually be this year?’”

“Identity-based habits are going to keep you congruent with who you are and your chance of actually executing them goes through the roof.”

“Things cannot be painful. They need to be easy. They need to be pleasurable. That's how we're programmed as humans. If we don't do things that are in alignment with that, we don't stick with it.”

“Every day you get to vote for the person that you want to be.”

All of the information on this podcast is for general informational purposes only. Please talk to your physician and medical team about what is right for you. No medical advice is being on this podcast.

If you live in Indiana or Illinois and want to work with doctor Matthea Rentea, you can find out more on www.RenteaClinic.com

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Transcript

0:28

Welcome back to another episode of the podcast. We are going to make today's episode super short and sweet. The reason being, first of all, love you for listening to this when you are likely on your break or you're at the end of the year here. Thank you for giving me a few minutes. So I want to talk today about what you could do instead of setting a New Year's resolution. I saw some Horrible statistics about New Year's resolutions that about 6 out of every 10 people said it. So, okay, more than 50%, but that only 8 percent are going to keep that resolution by the end of the year. Basically by February, 90 plus percent of people have already abandoned the goal. So, Knowing this, we know that setting a grand New Year's resolution, this, this grand proclamation, I'm going to go to the gym every single day this next year, not going to work. Now it's very normal and natural for us to have reset points, right? We talk about this a lot of the podcasts, whether it be if you have kids, maybe it's, Hey, they're going back to school in September. It's like reset button, right? Summer reset button because, you know, you have, maybe they have some time off or you're doing different trips. This is very normal and natural. This reset phenomenon, maybe the beginning of every week, the beginning of every month, it's sort of a rebirth and a new period. I'm going to suggest to you that this next year, number one, if you haven't done it. friendly reminder for the 900th time by the book Atomic Habits. We'll make sure to link it in the show notes. By the way, as well, if you have not checked this out, we have a really good resource section now on my website. So it's rentia clinic, r e n t e a clinic. com. If you click on resources, so there's the different. courses that we have and things like that. But keep scrolling down that page and you'll see that on there are different books that I recommend. If you ask about the InBody, which one specifically is it? We have a lot of that linked. There's also a free resource if you want the entire guide for that. There's 10 different sections of things that I realized. I'm getting asked about this all day long on social and the DMs, things like that. We put it all together in a PDF for you. So if that's something that you want, The link is right there all throughout it'll say, Hey, do you want the full guide? Here it is, but we have a lot of it linked right on the website. If you don't want to, If you don't want to get that full resource. But here's the thing that I'm, that I'm wondering for you. Instead of setting New Year's resolutions that you know are garbage and do not happen, if you read the book Atomic Habits, he talks a lot about, about working on habits. Okay, so number one, I want to recommend that You work on building different systems and habits and not making grand proclamations. Now, part of this when you're going to decide the things you want to do, because I think that's incredibly helpful. I am going to recommend that you follow in that book, what he talks about, where he talks about making. identity based habits and not outcome based habits. So outcome based habits are when you say, I want to lose 50 pounds this year. Sounds amazing. It's like, wow, we're going to do that. Here's the un amazing part. It doesn't tell you who you need to be to achieve that. So when you set an identity based habit, it is saying something like, I want to be someone who exercises consistently. I want to be someone who works out consistently. Who cares enough about their health that they are getting in nutrition that really matters. Someone that cares enough about building up muscle that I get enough protein consistently. I want to be someone that takes my health seriously this year. That means I'm going to see a doctor. That means I think working with a trainer could get me toward it, whatever it might be. But I want you to think about who do I want to actually be this year? Why are we going to do this? Why are we going to care about this? Because identity based habits. are going to keep you congruent with who you are and your chance of actually executing on it goes through the roof. So the chance of you sticking with it is going to be so much higher. The evidence shows us this from studies. I'm going to give you some prime examples. I'm someone that moves their body daily. This is really something that's like core to my identity. And so for me walking, If I think about this past year, there are few days that have occurred. There was one week this year that I got really sick and I did not walk for a few days, but every other day, it's a pretty, even if I'm, tired the day after my GLP 1 injection, even if I'm pre period, I've had days this year, sometimes when I work from eight in the morning until nine at night, literally solid, well, that's a lie. There'll be maybe a 30 minute gap, but that's it. And I go, Oh my gosh, I don't know if I'm going to get through that day. I still did a walk. Why? Because it's my identity. I am someone who moves her body daily. Why? The other part of that identity, I know that it really helps me to regulate my physical body. It helps bring down cortisol levels. It helps regulate me emotionally. I'm a much better physician, mom, wife, everything. If I set the goal, I want to walk 10K steps a day. That's result based. Now it sounds like I'm splitting hairs, right? Cause you're like, wait a minute, what? That's the same thing that you're talking about. No. I'm someone that moves their body regularly. Typically I do 10k steps per day. If I'm, if I'm amazing, I'll do more. So typically that will occur, but it's because it's my identity. This is who I am. I'm someone who moves her body daily. The way that I like doing it is with walking and I do it because X, Y, Z, the core identity of who I am, that habit, it very much so helps me get going. I am much more motivated to make it happen. When I have a result based thing, it's very hard when I come at it from the approach of I need to do 10 K steps today. Often I'm like, well, I'm just not gonna have time for that. That's what happens for me when I have that. Also, I'll just give you my own examples. When I've set weight based goals, it never pans out. Why? We don't have as much control over the net number going down that we think. And so if I'm focused on, well, how's my hydration, how's the protein, how's the movement, all these things, much better result. So what I want to challenge you is, can you set identity based habits and not result based? So who do you need to be to achieve this? Okay, thing number two that's in that book that's gold, 1 percent upgrades. 1 percent upgrades are small things that you can do. They do not feel painful at all. They are easy to use this word, execute. They're easy to do. It's like, Hey, if you normally get two, let's say you get 40 ounces of water daily, you do two 20 ounce little containers during the day. Alright, what's the upgrade? Can we do a little glass in the morning before you go to work and still do those two at work? Do we want to do more? Do we think that that's good and maybe the area is we get more protein? You start to look at where's the little upgrade. It's not painful. It sticks within your motivational triad. Motivational triad is this concept of things cannot be painful. They need to be easy. They need to be pleasurable. That's how we're programmed as humans. If we don't do things that are in alignment with that, we don't stick with it. So now, you know how we just talked about it needs to be in our identity. of who we are that we're going to do it, because that is very value based. We're going to stick in that, right? And then if it's one percent upgrade, it's very easy. So listen to what we're creating. We're in alignment. This bike is going down the road, no problem. There's no rock in front of us, we've made it easy. We're going downhill. It's easy peasy. We're actually picking up steam. It's getting, it's getting better and better. When you look at the graph, and I'll see if we can stick this, I'm sure I can find this online, because All these graphics are all, are all over online. When you do 1 percent upgrades at the end of the year, you have this exponential curve where it goes up in a positive direction. When you do 1 percent more negative daily, instantly you go down to zero. Not instantly. That's an exaggeration. Very quickly, you go down in that direction. And so it is so powerful. These 1 percent upgrades. I used to, when I had a continuous membership with coaching in the past, the favorite things that we did is we would have 1 percent upgrade these, these challenge weeks. We would say, Hey, what's your 1 percent upgrade? And then the next week we decide, do we want to keep it the same or do we want to change it? Those were always my favorite times. I want to leave you with this this year, that we're not doing big unrealistic things that you can't stick with. What is the identity of who you want to be? I want you to write down three sentences of I am someone who, fill in those three sentences. And then I want you to decide what are the 1 percent upgrades in those areas that I'm going to slowly work on. And I want you to come back to these. early and often. I want you to write them down. Every day I want you to look at it. At the end of the day I want you to check in. Did I do it? If you can't do the things, the goal is too big. And I'm dead serious when I say this. So let's say that you, I'm just going to take water. Okay. You've been drinking 40 ounces of water daily and you want to go up to 50 and you can't get it done. And then you tell me, well, I don't think that's too, you're going to argue with me. I should be able to do 50. That's not too big. Well, guess what? If it's not happening, there's a reason. So what is it? Is it that you don't actually believe it matters? Is it that you're not prioritizing? Like all these other things are at the top of your leaderboard. Those things matter more. You're not prioritizing these things. The reality is tell me what you're doing with your time and I'm going to know your priorities. So, I want to just throw this out here, we're going to set a few things of, of who we want to be this year, and then we're going to do 1 percent upgrades to get there. I'm going to leave you with the quote that he says, it's the most powerful thing in the world. Every day you get to vote for the person that you want to be. Every single day you've got multiple decisions where you get to say, what's the next best decision in front of me. When you do these things over time, you end up in a radically different place. So I want to leave it here. I hope you have the best New Year's ever and that January 1st comes around and you think, I can do this, but in an entirely different capacity. If you love this episode, I would love if you give me a comment, what resonated with you, screenshot this episode, share it on social, tag me. Matea Rentea, M A T E A R E N T E A M D, all one word. Tag me on social. Tell me how it was impactful. I'd love to hear from you. Hope you have an amazing New Year's and we will talk in the new year, my friend.