[jak]

I don't know if this will help much as everyone is different, but for me it has to be a spontaneous decision initially - like back in January one day I just thought "I might go swim laps at the pool today", rather than any digging deep and thinking about it too much. So I don't really set goals/resolutions (especially not New Year's ones) - too much pressure to start and then feeling bad if you don't achieve them. Then I found I really enjoyed swimming and went again and again... after a couple of weeks it had become a routine (my whole life seems like a routine with work, commuting/bus timetables, kids activities, etc) so swimming became part of that (same days/times each week).

I'm sure I've read somewhere you have to do something 8 times or 20 times or for 8 weeks or something like that before it becomes a habit, whether its exercise, changing your diet, drinking more water (I did that in the last 12 months too, and now drink ~2 litres a day (I used to drink next to none) or something else, so if you can motivate yourself for those first weeks it should become a lot easier after that.