How many of you would be jazzed if I asked how your New Year’s diet and exercise goals were coming along at this point? How many of you would want to punch your computer? We hear the phrase, “new year, new beginning,” all the time. And so many of us, your truly included, use that fresh start we get on New Year’s Day to set some new goals. But the thing with most of the wellness goals is that there is a process to most of them. So in reality, it is just as much about the habit you are trying to create as it is about the end result.

A basic example: weight loss. Regardless of whether the end goal is ten pounds or one hundred, it isn’t something you should plan on accomplishing overnight. There is a process involved in weight loss. Calorie consumption needs to be monitored somehow. Additional calories need to be burned. There are real changes that need to happen both in terms of diet and exercise to check this particular goal off the list. And that reflects changes in habit.

It might have been a habit to just eat the fries that came with your steak at dinner, now you have to think about how that fits into your calorie allowance for the day. It might have been habit to get up in the morning and autopilot through your shower, breakfast, getting out the door morning routine. But now, the larger picture forces a re-examination of these habits and asks different choices in certain circumstances.

Now instead of fries at dinner, you are choosing a baked potato or veggies. Instead of zombie-ing your way through the morning routine, you are now getting up earlier to exercise. Kudos to you, friend!

But at this point into New Year’s goal season, those new habits are starting to stink. Why? The newness of your goals has worn off. The enthusiasm you had several weeks ago has waned. Now you are in the grind of the actual process. Steamed veggies don’t taste as good as fries and it is hard to get out of bed earlier when you are tired. Reality has set in and sometimes, reality bites.

So, why am I telling you what you already know? Well, because we have all been there. Anyone who has tackled any goal that has several steps or involves a process has been through this part. The part where it is tedious and the end is still so far off and not much progress can be seen yet. And we all know that to make the goal, to check that off the proverbial list, we have to keep at it. Even when it stinks. Especially when it stinks.

I am also here to encourage you. It takes a minimum of twenty-one days to form a new habit. One new habit. Now a lot depends on the habit in question. And that new habit interacts with older habits you have too. But, again, the message is keep at it. Habits become habitual when we continue to make those choices.

Twenty-one days is three weeks. That’s not a lot of time in the grand scheme. However it is plenty of time for roadblocks to pop up and for motivation to lag. Wellness goals are especially tricky because they usually involve developing several new habits simultaneously. And that can take lots of twenty-one day chunks. If you find that you are really struggling at this point, don’t give up. All or nothing thinking is why gyms are packed on January 3 and mostly empty on March 3.

Just because every single new habit you are trying to adopt isn’t going perfectly doesn’t mean you should completely throw in the towel. As we hit the midpoint of the first month, take the time to revisit the habits you chose. Honestly evaluate which ones are working (even if they still might be hard) and which ones aren’t.

Lean in to the ones that are working. Really concentrate on making those habits stick during the next twenty-one days. Dial back some of the ones that aren’t working. You can either revisit them again in a few weeks when the first set of habits is more second nature or you can try something else.

There is no one clear roadmap for wellness goals. It is why there are so many options out there. Different things work for different people. And it is okay to end up changing a habit and learn that the specific change doesn’t work for you. You learned something right? As long as you adjust and keep at it, you’ll get there. Twenty-one days at a time.