3 easy steps to stick with your new habits for good
If you've developed a new habit, you've probably experienced one of two things. You either really love your new habit or you really hate your new habit. Most people stick to things they really love. What you want, however, is to develop new habits that stick with you and make your life better.
Learning how to stick with a new habit is one of the most important skills that you can have. It will help you to make sure that you are able to reach your goals, whether that is your fitness goals, personal goals or even financial goals.
This blog is all about making sure that you don't quit on a new habit that you are trying to make a part of your regular routine.
Let’s break it down into a three step process that makes it easy to follow until we’ve internalized the new behavior and made it a true habit – something we do automatically without having to think about, like brushing our teeth.
Here are the three easy steps to stick with them.
Decide What You Want To Do
The first step is to decide what you want that new habit to be. Introducing new habits into one’s life can be a challenge but it is important to start somewhere.It is essential that you have a clear goal in mind before you begin. One should be realistic and honest with oneself when deciding what type of behavior one is going to focus on developing as part of their new routine.
For example, if there is a behavior that you KNOW interferes with your productivity, this would be the perfect starting point because it will make it easier for you to develop a new habit or stop an old one.
Don’t just tell yourself you want to exercise more. Instead say something like “I will go for a 30 minute walk every single day”. Deciding what your new habit will be and committing to when and how you’re going to do it, is half the battle.
Remind Yourself To Get It Done
The next few days should be smooth sailing. You’re motivated and excited to get this done. Sticking to your new habit isn’t an issue. But a few days in you’ll notice that it’s easy to slip back into old habits.
New habits are hard to create. The time between your thought and the moment you actually do something can be months or years, and that’s why we forget.
Maybe it’s raining and you don’t really want to go out and walk. Or maybe your day just gets away from you. This is when it’s important to have a daily reminder. Set an alert on your phone or add the new habit to your daily to-do list for a while.
A simple trick that will help you create a new habit is to ask someone else to remind you regularly about it. This works especially well if this person is your peer, like a friend who has already created this habit successfully.
Make It Part Of Your Routine Until It Becomes A Habit
Which brings us to the last step. It takes some time before a new behavior becomes a true habit. Until then, a routine will work to your best advantage. Even before the new behavior becomes automatic, a routine will help you get it done without having to spend a lot of willpower or relying on daily reminders.
In the beginning, you have to make a conscious effort to perform a new habit. You can’t just say that you want to start a new habit and expect it to happen over night.
Make that daily walk part of your after dinner routine, or change from grabbing a snack at the vending machine at work at 10:00 in the morning to packing a healthy snack.
Making a new habit really comes down to forming a routine of behaviors that will help develop your new habit. Over time, once the behavior becomes familiar, it will become part of your routine and you won’t even realize when you’re doing it!
Decide to create the new habit, practice the routine until it’s second nature and you’ll be well on your way to forming a new good habit.
It can take a bit of time to develop new habits successfully. However, by following these three easy steps, you should be able to establish the type of habits that are right for your personal life. The more you practice these steps, the easier it will become for you to create new habits every day!
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