Tips For Creating New Habits
Habits are one of the most influential factors affecting your life. In fact, most of your daily life is lived by habits. They usually direct your actions, your reactions, your decision, and even your thoughts. Habits can be very power in helping you rech your goals.
Below are a list of tips to help you start creating positive habits:
Believe
You need to have a firm belief you can create the positive habit. Your thoughts and feeling will govern your actions, so believe you can make the everlasting change. If not, no matter what you decide to change, you will never have the conviction to achieve that goal.
Commit
Make a commitment for one full month to whatever habit you decide to create. Some experts say it takes about 21 days to either create or break a habit. It probably takes longer for most people to really create a sustainable habit, but the 21 days is a good starting point. A month is a good block of time to choose since it puts you past the initial 21 days and it easily fits your calendar. If you can make it through the initial conditioning phase, it becomes much easier to sustain. Therefore, make the commitment to begin and follow through.
Start small and simple
Do not try to completely change your life in the first month. Choose one or two habits which you can build on in the future. If you try to create too many new habits, you may become overwhelmed and become discouraged from accomplishing your goal. If you want to create a habit of eating all healthy meals, consider starting by focusing on eating a healthy breakfast for the first month. After you have successfully created that habit, you could begin to include a healthy lunch in the second month.
List the benefits
List out the benefits of the having new habit and place them in a location you will see often. A reminder of the benefits will help you persist when you get the urge to quit.
Work with friends
Find others who want to create a similar habit. This will provide a network for support and encouragement as well you keep you motivated if you feel like quitting.
Have a Plan
Do not just think of a new habit. It is best to have a plan on how you will accomplish your task. If you want to create a healthy eating habit, have a plan on what you will eat each day. This way you will know what you will need to buy so you will have it available. Without a plan, people often fall back into their old bad habits. Also, it is a good idea to write down your plan. Having a written plan gives you a visual reminder what you will need to do to successfully create your habit.
Remind yourself
Place reminders around to help you remember to execute your habit each day or you might forget and miss a few days. Without the consistency, you may lose momentum. For example, you may create a daily electronic calendar reminder on your phone, or you may want to place a note on the refrigerator that reminds you to “eat healthy. “
Take daily action
Both continuous effort and consistency are critical if you want to make a habit stick. If you want to start exercising, go to the gym every day for your first thirty days. Going a couple times a week will make it harder to form the habit. Activities you do only once every few days are harder to create as habits.
Track your progress
Keep track of how far you have come and how much you have accomplished. You can also announce and track your new habit on social media like Twitter or Facebook. This can also aid as a reminder and as a support mechanism from friends and family.
Reward yourself
After you have accomplished a significant goal or objective, give yourself a reward. For example, if your goal is to lose weight, you may consider buying a new outfit when you reach a certain targeted weight.
See more Tips for creating new habits