If you want to stick to your New Year’s Resolution or any new habit, don’t hinge it on a single behaviour. Instead, come up with as many different behaviours as you can think of—or what Stanford social behavioural scientist BJ Fogg calls a “Swarm of Bs.”

We’ve been through a lot in fitness this year, discussing gym etiquette, body image, ambitious goals and more. Here are our best fitness posts of the year.

It’s very trendy to shun all things resolute this time of year. After all, attempting to improve yourself shouldn’t be a once-a-year activity. On the other hand, the end of a year is the perfect time for reflection. It’s a chance to take stock of how we’re doing, professionally and personally, physically and emotionally. And what we find can help inform our goals for next year.

Maybe you’ve already started to reflect on where 2019 has taken you, and what you want to focus on in 2020. You’re planning a trip, or figuring out how to get back to the gym regularly, or thinking of starting a hobby. But have you thought about your money?

For the last month of 2019, we’re going to do some exercises to measure progress and set goals. Whether you’ve worked out a lot this year or you’re just starting, taking a specific benchmark now will help you appreciate your current and future progress. Today we’re starting with flexibility.

Arbitrary strength classifications are stupid. I know this, and yet I keep looking up how my lifts compare on various charts and tools. The best, and most fun, among them: SymmetricStrength.com.

Life is a game that we're all playing (whether we think of it as a game or not). It's time to level up by knowing the rules so we can "win".

Hey, remember January? It was a long time ago, but you probably set some goals for what you’d like to achieve this year. (Memory failing you? Maybe you contributed to our fitness goals discussion here.)

There’s a certain path through fitness that a lot of us have taken. First you take each workout as it comes: do this class, or tag along with that friend at the gym. Then, you realise that you can make progress in your sport—whether that’s lifting, running, or anything else—and you start following a plan designed to take you to a concrete goal. So far so good.

You’re probably familiar with the concept of the SMART goal: specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely. That kind of goal can get results, but it might not be the best way to get you where you want to go.

What’s the biggest goal on your to-do list? Is it a cross-country move to your dream city? Opening a business? Starting your own blog?

Now, consider: Why haven’t you checked it off your list yet?

We're now barrelling towards the end of the year at lightspeed — which means it’s a great time to start something new.

When you decide to work towards a big financial goal, getting motivated at the start comes naturally. You’re excited to start chipping away. When you’re near the end of your money marathon, you get reinvigorated and start thinking of the endless possibility of post-goal life. But what about that seemingly endless part in the middle? How do you stay motivated to keep chipping away at your progress?

A lot of us know that saying “phone, wallet, keys” before we walk out the door can remind us of what we don’t want to leave behind. Well, it turns out that developing similar mantras for other areas of our lives can help us focus on our goals.

A job isn’t just a job for many people — we want to be fulfilled, and often we want to be working toward a greater good or some measure of personal growth.

Every dollar counts when you’re saving for retirement or another big financial goal. That includes the dollars you’re paying in brokerage fees and losing to expense ratios - which can add up to a lot more than you realise, thanks to what’s called “negative compounding.”

I remember exactly where I was when I realised how long it would take to save up a year’s worth of income.

A lot of us have these fantasies of what our lives will be like after we’ve achieved a certain milestone. After we’ve gotten the job, met the right person, saved up the money, and so on.

I used to be a librarian. I used to be a newspaper reporter. I used to be a market researcher in publishing. I used to have offices with doors, access to supply closets, and regular breaks to drink pots of free coffee.