Keeping New Year Resolutions
Do you make your happy New Year's resolutions? And more specifically do you make skin care resolutions? I’ve seen lots of people talking about their resolutions and because I follow a lot of people in the skin world there’s been lots about skin resolutions.
I know January is the time of the year we make some sort of commitment or intention to be better and generally the focus is on looking after ourselves, getting back on track, getting healthier, getting happier, exercising more, eating less, drinking less, reducing stress — and I even met one person over the holidays telling me she had condensed it all into the word JOY. Every day would be about finding joy. Maybe it’s the cynical Irish in me but I think that resolution might be harder to keep than all the others, even though that’s what we are all looking for at the end of the day.
I think that we all know by now that whatever we commit to, it’s easier said than done. One of my many jobs in health was as a Quality Improvement Facilitator at a large DHB (yes, that was a job and yes, many people rolled their eyes when they saw me coming). I even spent time with an expert from Toyota learning about their change process, but it was all about identifying areas in patient safety that needed improvement and then working with the staff to change how they did things. The focus was always on the one thing which would bring about the biggest change for the greatest good and then making that the easiest thing to do.
From that experience, I know it’s not that easy to change our habits, but it helps when you:
- make it simple and focused.
- do one thing at a time.
- have reminders to check in on yourself and not throw in the towel the first (second or third) time you trip up.
- tell someone supportive to remind and support you and, even better, to join you.
- know that on average it takes 66 days to create a new habit, longer if it’s shaking a pleasure-based habit, like eating sugar.
Anyway, I digress. Back to skin resolutions. Has this ever been a thing for you? Maybe I am a bit naïve thinking that everyone has a daily skincare routine. I cannot imagine not cleaning my face at the end of the day and putting on face cream, morning and night. I've done it most of my life, as taught by my mother. But maybe that's not the real world and there's lots of people who don’t, and maybe they need to make resolutions.
So, if you need to make resolutions to look after your skin, start small:
- Clean your face every night and apply a good Face oil or Face cream morning and night.
- Wear sunscreen every single day — that will give you the best results. And no, I don’t sell one but there’s loads out there and here is a blog I wrote about sunscreens last year.
Best of luck, Deirdre xx
