A habit is basically a set of actions that you carry out on a regular basis without thinking. In fact, scientific research has shown that when you carry out certain actions in a repetitive and continuous manner, neural pathways are created in the brain, making the habit almost completely automatic. The actions we carry out repeatedly form our habits, and then our habits create our lives.
This guide will show you how to create new habits, or get rid of negative ones, by following the eleven steps laid out below.
1. Focus on Changing or Creating One Habit at a Time
By putting all of your focus into trying to create one positive habit, or trying to break one bad habit, your chances of succeeding are much higher than if you scatter your energy trying to change many habits at the same time. It may seem to be more efficient to tackle several habits at once, but by doing this you’ll become overwhelmed and will probably fail to create any lasting results.
The Law of Focus—from “Simpleology 101″—states that in order to accomplish something you have to focus your attention on the target until you hit it. If you try to take up several habits simultaneously, you’ll be spreading yourself too thin and you’ll make it much more difficult for yourself to accomplish any of the habits you’re trying to reach.
2. Know Why You’re Doing It
It will be much easier for you to adopt a habit if you’re very clear on why you want to add that particular habit to your life. What benefits will you acquire if you adopt this new habit? Write them down.
After truly thinking about why you want to adopt a certain habit, you might decide that it’s not really something you’re interested in after all. On the other hand, a list of benefits is a strong motivator that will help you to achieve those habits that you do decide to take on. For habits you want to break, it’s equally important that you be very clear on why you want to break the habit. The stronger your “why”, the more committed you’ll be.
3. Make it Small and Simple
If exercising for an hour each day is too much of a daunting task, start out by exercising 20 minutes a day. You can always increase the amount as you go along. On the other hand, if the task seems insurmountable from the get-go you’ll never get started.
For example, you can’t leap from a life of careless spending to a life of frugality. A second example is that it’s very difficult to overhaul a lifetime of bad eating habits in one fell swoop. Anything that is too difficult or too time consuming is not conducive to becoming a habit. Start off by taking small steps.
4. Establish a Specific Time to Carry Out Your New Habit
How much time will you need to set aside each day for your new habit? Half an hour to meditate? Fifteen minutes to tidy up your desk at the end of the work-day? Five minutes to write in your gratitude journal at the end of the day? An hour to drive back and forth from the gym and lift weights? However much time you’ll need, you have to set the time aside in your day planner.
5. Conduct a 30-day Trial
Although most people would agree that it takes 21 days to ingrain a new habit, Steve Pavlina-the well-known personal development writer–suggests that you conduct a 30-day trial. He argues the following:
- That it’s easier to maintain something that you’ve done for a period of 30 days;
- That the 30 days of success will give you the confidence to continue; and
- That in 30 days you can gather enough feedback to decide what’s working and what’s not.
Also, it’s easier to convince yourself to do something for 30 days, as opposed to trying to talk yourself into doing something for the rest of your life.
6. Replace a Bad Habit with Something Else
If you’re trying to break a bad habit, you have to replace it with something else. The bad habit is serving some purpose in your life; by taking it away you’re leaving a void which needs to be filled by something else or the bad habit will simply find its way back into the void. After all, nature abhors a vacuum.
If you smoke to relieve stress, you need to find a more productive way to relax, such as getting a massage or taking up yoga. If you overeat when you’re bored, think of fun activities you could take up, such as gardening, playing board games, or starting a new hobby.
7. Set Up Your Environment to Help You
Set up your environment to help you. If you’re trying to stop eating junk food, don’t have junk food in the house; instead, stock up on the types of foods that you intend to eat. If you want to stop watching television, put the television in the closet. If you want to exercise first thing in the morning, keep your equipment—such as a jumping rope or exercise mat—in plain sight.
8. Chart Your Progress
Print out a calendar with 30 days on it and every day when you keep to your new habit mark it on the calendar. Follow comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s advice: for each day he does his task of writing, he puts a big red X over that day, which-after a few days–creates a chain. He adds that you have to make sure not to break the chain. Repetition and continuity are key elements to creating a new habit.
9. Do It with Others
When you’re trying to create a positive habit or break a bad one, you’ll get better results if you do it with a buddy or if you join a group, whether on or off-line. It’s a good idea to share your progress, or lack thereof, with people who are going through the same thing you are or have already gone through it. The benefit of getting a buddy to adopt a habit along with you, or to join a group where everyone is trying to create the same habit, is twofold: it creates accountability and it gives you a support group.
10. Make it Visual
Go back to your list of why you want to create a new habit. Do you want to lose weight so that you look great in a swim suit? Find pictures of people with the body you want, cut them out, and place them where you can see them. For any habit you’re trying to create, find images that represent the benefits that you associate with adopting that new habit and create a vision board for yourself with those images. Look at them often.
In addition to creating a vision board, you should visualize yourself–as soon as you wake up in the morning and right before going to bed–carrying out your new habit and achieving the results you’re after. Creative visualization is using your imagination to create a clear mental picture of something you want to create in your life. Your imagination is very powerful, and it can be a great aid if you use it correctly.
11. Reward Yourself
You can reward yourself each time you follow a habit consistently for a specific period of time, such as every 30 days. Or, you can reward yourself every time you reach a predetermined milestone. For example, if your first milestone is losing five pounds by exercising for 30 minutes, six days a week, you can reward yourself when you’ve lost the five pounds.
Conclusion
By adopting positive habits that are aligned with the goals you’ve set for yourself you’ll be putting on automatic the actions that you need to perform on a consistent basis in order to reach those goals. On the other hand, by dropping bad habits that are not aligned with your goals you’ll be eliminating the actions that have prevented you from reaching your goals in the past.
Begin today to harness the power of habits by following the steps laid out above to get rid of bad habits and start ingraining positive habits in your life.
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(The “Develop Good Habits at an Early Age” photograph is courtesy of jmharman73).
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