Julia Dhar

The first is I'm going to declare a fresh start.

And you might know the fresh start effect, which is that certain periods of time, your birthday, New Year, a Monday, can be very motivating for us in terms of declaring that now is the beginning of a new habit.

We just seem to be a little bit more successful when we have had a fresh start.

The thing that I love about this science and psychology is anything can be a fresh start tomorrow, the next hour, the next half hour, the more that you can say to yourself, I have the opportunity to begin again at any possible moment.

And so if, for example, you have not started the day as healthily as you want and you're like, well,

Today is shot.

I might as well eat a whole cake.

You could also say 2 p.m.

is a fresh start.

Nobody cares.

There are no rules.

Pick a time.

Begin with a fresh start.

The second is instead of talking about what we have to do or what the rules or requirements are or what we think other people expect of us,

It could be really constructive to instead frame our goals in terms of expectations that we have of ourselves.

What expectation do I have of myself?

So I might have an expectation that I am a person who is

able and excited to get up early and exercise.

I might have an expectation that I am a person who gives help to other people when I can see that they need it, that I am kind or generous or patient.

And you see, all of that is part of saying, here's a set of qualities that I hope I have, that I would like to see more of in myself.