Some people use these goals as a way to start living a healthier and happier life, but most people lose interest in them after only a few days. This disappointing pattern of having a sudden burst of motivation and then going back to old habits doesn’t just happen with New Year’s goals. It happens with all good habits.
It can take anywhere from three to eight months to make a new habit. If it gets any shorter, you might go back to being your old, less healthy self. It seems like a long time, and it is, but once you’ve fought all the temptations of an unhealthy lifestyle for this long, better habits become second nature.
Healthy habits like eating a well-balanced diet, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep, and practising good hygiene will instantly improve your mood, health, and quality of life as a whole.
1. Get yourself ready in your mind
Every project starts with a thought that makes you want to do it. After you have a clear plan in your head, you can take steps to make a habit a part of your life.
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Few people have the mental control to start doing something right away, let alone start a new habit.
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2. The race will be won by caution
When you have a goal in mind, it makes sense that you’d want to move quickly towards it. But the truth is that nothing good comes about in a day.
To build a habit, you need time, work, and practise. The best way to reach a goal is to take small steps towards it over time.
Try to think about growth instead of goals or self-ultimatums. Mark your starting point and try to do better each day than you did the day before.
The small steps forward don’t have to be amazing either. If you worked out for five minutes yesterday, try to work out for six minutes today.
It might not seem like much at the time, but all the little changes add up in the end.
3. Take it easy
Let’s say you looked at your routine and made a list of all the bad habits you want to get rid of and replace with good ones that will last.
At that point, it can be tempting to do everything at once because your drive is at its highest and you can’t wait to see how these healthy habits will change your life, but that’s a bad idea.
Not only is it wrong, but it can’t be kept up because there are only so many things we can change. If you try to change a big part of your routine all at once, you’re likely to get tired pretty quickly.
Once you’ve made a list of the bad habits, choose one to change first. It’s also a good idea to start with the one that can be changed the most easily.
This way, you can put all of your attention on that one habit and make it more likely that it will stick.
4. Make things simple for yourself
How much trouble should I give myself? Something that isn’t so easy that it makes people bored, but also isn’t so hard that it makes people nervous.
If you want to make something a habit, make sure it’s not too hard to start. If it is, you might not do it. At first, you should do extra things to make the change easy on yourself.
Here are some ideas on how to do that:
- If you want to run first thing in the morning, take out your training clothes the night before.
- If you want to drink more water, keep a water bottle with a scale on your desk.
- Put the healthy snacks at the front of the food cabinet.
- The hardest part is getting going. Once you get past the “prep” part of a habit, it’s usually easier to start doing it.
5. Give yourself a reward
Rewarding good habits is a great way to keep us on track with self-discipline. When you’re looking forward to a reward that you’ve worked hard for, you’re also looking forward to finishing the job at hand.
When combined with the pleasure of finishing a healthy task, rewards are very good for a person’s physical, mental, and emotional health.
Also, don’t forget to take care of yourself every so often. Treats, unlike awards, don’t have to be earned, but they teach self-love, which is just as important.
6. Be consistent, but don’t refuse to bend.
Make sure you keep going once you’ve started. Any goal, no matter how big or small, can only be reached by being consistent.
Mark the day you finally stop doing something on a calendar. Do this for every day that habit is a part of your life. You’ll start making a chain soon. The hardest thing for you to do is not to break that chain.
The more you do something, the faster it becomes part of your habit. Soon, you’ll look forward to it, and if you miss it for any reason, it will feel weird.
In spite of this, don’t be too hard on yourself. Setbacks are a part of life, so learn to deal with them with humility and grow from them.
Don’t be upset if you break your chain or miss a day. As long as you make up for the mistake and get back to your normal routine the next day, everything is fine.
