A habit is an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. (Dictionary.com)
Habits are the result of our daily behavior and actions. It is our way of being more efficient in our lives. Whenever decision-making arises, our habits come into play by choosing which step to take. For us to choose better options, we have to find ways to build good habits.
I'm going to list out five easy steps on how we can build new habits in our lives.
1. Focus on one habit at a time
It can be overwhelming to have so many new habits that we want to incorporate in our lives. The more we try to build all of those habits, the higher the tendency that we won't be able to do it. The best way for us to form a habit is by focusing on just one habit at a time. Consistency is the key in building the habit so it's better to direct your whole attention to one. You also don't have to do everything overnight, take small actions every single day and just progress as the days go by. Also, they say it takes about 21 days to form a habit, so don't rush on it. Take as much time as you need in building it.
For example, if you want to build the habit of exercising more, saving more money, spending less time on social media, and reading more books... all of these habits can be quite overwhelming to do in just one day. Try to put your attention first on exercising more for about a month. You can take it slowly like spending about 5-10 minutes in the first week, then increase it by another 5-10 minutes in the following week. Then, in the following month, you can add another new habit on top of exercising more. You continue this routine until you're able to do all of the habits you wanted to build.
2. Know the result
Remember the second habit of the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People of Stephen Covey? It is to 'Begin with the End in Mind'. Knowing your desired result would actually help you motivate to do the habit. Understanding the end also help you assess which tasks or actions you have to consistently do to form the habit. It is also good if you commit to a habit knowing that it would benefit you, this will make you feel more responsible to actually doing it.
In our earlier example, the reason why you want to exercise more is that you wanted to lose weight and be healthier. By losing weight, you feel more confident about yourself. Once you are healthier, you are more active and more productive. Understanding the why's of your habit will help you better achieve it.
3. Use habit trackers
Habit tracker is an effective way for you to monitor the progress of your habits. Being able to see it visually makes it easier for you to know how much you've done to create the habit. It will let you be accountable to yourself of how much progress you're making. It will also make you feel inspired to see how much you've done already.
You can use a blank calendar or if you're into bullet journals, you can make on yourself. There's a lot of ideas on Pinterest that you can use for designs. Click this link to see more: Habit Tracker Design Ideas
4. Find an Accountability Buddy or Person
There's something effective about external accountability. An accountability buddy or person will help you ensure that you're actually doing the steps to create your habit. Having that sense of responsibility to another person can be a powerful motivator to do the actual habit. They will also remind you to push yourself and battle the limits you put onto yourself.
From our example earlier of exercising more, you can use your family as your accountability person. When you want to spend more time with your family and be present for a long time, you know that you should be healthier. This is one type of external motivation that you can get from having an accountability person.
5. Reward yourself
After going through all the efforts of creating the new habit in your life, it's definitely worth rewarding yourself. As to what kind of reward, it's all up to you. Just make sure that it actually inspires and motivates you to form the habit even more. Building habits doesn't have to be mundane, rewarding yourself will make it more an exciting process.
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Those are five simple steps that you can try and use to form habits. Just remember that after forming the habit, it just doesn't stop there. It will be continuous for the rest of your life. Building habits is not a goal, it is a change in lifestyle.
Do you have any helpful tips on building new habits? What are they? Let me know in the comments below! 😊
10 Comments
This is a great idea! The key is to know the difference between a good and bad habit! Love your logo!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your comment! And I agree, knowing which is good would also be vital.
DeleteThanks for sharing! This will help with something I’m working on.
ReplyDeleteYou’re welcome! I hope it’ll turn out well :)
DeleteAwesome tips! I would love to read a post about how to stop bad habits as well!
ReplyDeleteThank you! And that’s an interesting idea, I may work on that! :)
DeleteThese tips are class - thank you for sharing! I'm always trying to adopt new, healthier habits and replace older, less healthy habits but struggle with getting into the swing of things.
ReplyDeleteThank you and same here! These tips helped me a lot on how to build new habits. :)
DeleteRewarding is important as it gives motivation to maintain and build the habit consistently. Thank you for sharing such a nice post.
ReplyDeleteThank you for dropping by, as well ❤️
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