Building new habits
How do habits form?
Our lives are actually a set of habits that are often completely invisible.
In my ?previous ?The impact of Time Management on efficiency” publication I wrote about how there are positive habits that simply move you closer to achieving your goals, and there are habits that push you further away from them every day.
45% of the time we are driven by our habits, our good and bad habits set the direction of our lives, whether it's the timing of our day, our lifestyle, our work, our leisure time.
If our routine actions have such an impact on our lives, it is worth being conscious of our daily habits and using them to improve our efficiency.
By developing the right habits (or dropping the wrong ones), we can make significant changes in our lives.
The human brain strives to develop automaticity to relieve itself of burdens.
People can perform useful behaviours without wasting time and energy thinking about what they should be doing.
Why is it good to build habits?
Good habits make our lives easier. Once an activity becomes ingrained in behaviour and automatic, it no longer requires decisions to start doing it and much less effort to do it. Action becomes natural, so there will be no more feelings of procrastination and guilt about not doing something.
How can we develop new positive habits?
Change starts with identity
The adherence to a good habit depends to a large extent on whether the habit really fits into the long-term plan and goal. Self-awareness, as in all areas of life, is very important in developing a good habit. You need to know yourself, what your strengths and weaknesses are, because knowing these will make you feel better about yourself over time. Acceptance, accepting our own faults, has a big impact on our relationship with ourselves.
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If you find the motivator that drives you forward and that aligns perfectly with your goals, changing your habits will also become easier and simpler. When you can see your purpose and the 'why' behind it clearly and concisely, it will no longer be such a sacrifice to build in a good habit.
Planning
Planning is the foundation of everything. You need a good plan, a real strategy to achieve your goals, in this case, the incorporation of a good habit. Every day we get closer and closer to our long-term goal, and this can motivate us through the daily difficulties.
The good habit should always be in line with the goal, and that is the goal you tell yourself every single day. Choose habits that can be incorporated into your current life, not your expected, idealistic life.
Start with small steps
We usually want to build good habits into our lives overnight. We expect results almost immediately, but the problem is that we often fail to stick to them.?It is possible to take small steps towards the goal, especially if you are fundamentally uncomfortable with change and less adaptable. The success of achieving a goal lies in the meticulous planning of its implementation. The development of any great and good habit is the sum of many small habits.
Move slowly towards the goal
One habit at a time. Developing a new habit one at a time requires serious concentration and effort. Trying to do several habits at once will sap your energy, and not only will you not progress any faster, your chances of introducing even one new habit into your life will be minimised. So pick one of your habits and focus on it! Once your new habit becomes automatic, you can move on to the next one.
Focus on routines
The key is regularity. The more often you do an activity, the more it becomes ingrained as a habit.
Just like our bad habits, good habits can become routinely ingrained in our daily lives. After a while, you will automatically react to a situation according to your positive beliefs.
Keep the focus
Commit to your new habit is the best way to ensure success.
Developing a good habit is a goal that we need to work towards every day.