Habits are formed due to consistent efforts.
It is the imperative element that determines one's lifestyle. If you have
a routine of good habits you will have a good lifestyle. If you get accustomed
to a bad habit, your lifestyle will reflect the consequences.
Therefore, it is
most important to develop good habits in order to have a fulfilling lifestyle.
1. Back your habit with a solid
decision
It is important to
know the "Why?" of your habit. Why do you need to install a particular habit in your life?
For example, if you
want to build the habit of waking up early and working out. You need to give a
convincing reason for yourself on why you want to wake up early. Sit down and
write the consequences and the benefits you are going to reap by rising up early
and working out.
Build a strong reason to follow the habit. This will give you the
push and motivation to consistently follow your goal.
2. Eliminate the trigger
Most of us would
have tried to follow a habit and gave up very easily. This is because we do
not pay much attention to the trigger that is stopping us from achieving the
goal. It is essential that you locate your trigger and remove it. This will
pave the way for consistency in building the habit.
For example, You
wanted to build the habit of waking up early. You also set alarm the night
before and place the phone near you and sleep hoping that you will wake up
early the next day. But, what you tend to do is wake up and unconsciously turn
off the alarm and go back to sleep. Here, the trigger is the alarm that is
placed near your reach. So you will need to replace the alarm somewhere far
where you will need to get up and walk a few meters to turn it off.
3. Accountability
A habit is a
responsibility. Mostly, people be responsible if they are committed to
something. Hence, get yourself an accountability partner. Your accountability
partner can be your friend, a colleague, a coach, or any person whom you feel
you can be accountable to on a regular basis. You can even join some online
groups which have like-minded people, these people motivate you to follow your
habits religiously.
Also, habits are
easily formed in a fun way when practiced in a group. Therefore, when you are
trying to build a new habit it would be a cakewalk if you have a
group of people who practice along with you.
4. Discipline
Self-discipline is
the key to build any habit. Doing things when you don’t feel like doing,
strictly out of discipline will yield you guaranteed success.
Self-discipline is
built by pushing yourself. Remember that you will be able to push yourself
out of the comfort zone only if your goal of building a habit is backed up by a
firm decision.
5. Do not whip yourself
According to me, a habit should always have a positive pull.
If you beat yourself for not
following the habit then you will create negative energy around the habit.
This will make no sense because we are trying to install a new habit only to
elevate our life not to deplete it.
Therefore, always be kind to yourself
when trying to do something new. It is going to be hard anyway, so there is no
use in whipping yourself. It will only make the situation even harder. So learn
to face the challenges with self-love!
6. Reward yourself
Always remember to
treat yourself once you have achieved something, even if it seems so small.
Instead of expecting "more and more" out of you, just pause and
appreciate yourself. Recognize how far you have come and give yourself a hug.
These types of little encouragements from within will boost your
motivation level so that you can be even more determined to build that desired habit.
7. Follow this routine
Follow the 21/21/21
rule to install any new habit. The first 21 days will help you in breaking the old habit. The next 21 days will build a foundation for the new habit and the last 21
days will strengthen your new habit. After 63 days of continuous practice, the newly installed habit will become your second nature. From then, you no need to put any effort into
maintaining it at all.
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