Choosing the difficult path isn’t easy but offers countless benefits to improve your life. This article explores how to form good habits which stick.
Consistent, healthy habits are like a cheat code to life.
Find the right buttons and voila! There is that six pack you always wanted, or say goodbye to that need for a cigarette every 10 minutes.
How long does it take to form a habit like this?
Unfortunately, the “buttons” might involve around 2 months of sweat and unfulfilled cravings…
In fact, studies show it takes between 18 to 254 days to form a new habit, and 66 days on average.
Forming habits can also be a real challenge. Your old ways can call you like a siren song, tempting and pleading you to go back.
The point is though, if you put in the work and stay consistent, you will reach your goal. And once you reach that level, you will discover an autopilot to maintain those benefits with much less conscious effort.
Luckily, there are a number of ways you can drastically increase your chances of success.
Discover 14 tips and tricks to help you stick to the habits you set for yourself and change your life for the better.
1. Start Small
Aiming too high with your very first target can ask you to run before you’ve learnt to walk. Give yourself a chance to appreciate just getting started by completing some simple, achievable goals.
Remind yourself that change doesn’t happen in a day.
2. Establish Milestones
Set yourself milestones that get slightly more difficult each time.
This allows you to reflect on your great progress, and have plenty of those moments where you think “Oh damn, I remember when I couldn’t even do half of what I’m doing now”.
3. Understand the Power of Consistency
Consistency is the golden rule when trying to form good habits.
If you aren’t consistent then it’s impossible to actually reap the rewards of your new habit. Also, stopping and starting will actually make your life more difficult.
It’s easiest to think of this in terms of regular physical exercise.
It takes a herculean effort to complete those first few workouts, but as you stick with it and build up momentum, it gets easier and easier. Eventually it actually becomes preferable to stick to your regime because if you do stop, you’ll lose your progress and have to go through the hardest phase again.
And you already know how hard that can be.
4. Habit Apps
There are loads of excellent apps to help you log your progress, provide daily motivation, and define your goals.
Psychologically, the action of ticking off another successful day in sticking to your habits can also be a great tool for keeping you motivated.
Check out our top habit app picks to find one which suits you best.
5. Set Clear Goals for Yourself
Where do you want to get to? By figuring out the answer to that question, you can constantly ensure you are on the right track to your goals.
By planning in advance, you are also visualising your own success. This can be an incredibly powerful aspirational tool, and help you make your goals a reality.
6. Embrace Mindfulness
Our mind has an intimidating tendency to do whatever it wants. This means our life and the extent to which we feel happiness can feel outside of our control.
Mindfulness can completely turn around this feeling of being on autopilot. It’s a exceptional habit that can also help you to form other good habits.
Through practices like meditation, you can learn to separate yourself from the auto-reactivity of your emotions or thoughts and appreciate what you are doing or what you have right now.
When you think about it, how can any of us want more from life than that?
Discover the benefits of mindfulness, and some tips for getting started with meditation.
7. Get Some knowledge
It’s awesome how powerful gaining some knowledge can be. After all, isn’t that why you are reading these tips on how to form good habits?
When people have dedicated their lives to researching and understanding a certain subject, their knowledge is more than good value for the time you spend reading.
Also, if you understand how and why your new habit adds value to your life, you’ll have so many more reasons to keep on track.
To start, I’d particularly recommend reading “7 Habits of Highly Effective People” – this book was a game-changer for me personally, providing a really insightful view into the importance of self-awareness and making the right choices.
8. Buddy Up
Naturally you want to choose someone reliable or close to you, so that you can motivate each other to keep going.
This can be a little risky, so choose with care – if one of you fails, the other may be more tempted to follow suit.
However, if you both stay committed, you’ll provide each other with all the motivation and support needed to reach your goals.
The journey and shared effort will also undoubtedly bring you closer together.
9. Remove Temptation (where possible)
Don’t make your life harder than it needs to be.
If you are trying to cut out smoking, try to avoid hanging around people who smoke, at least at first. If you are trying to lose weight, put sweets in cupboards, or get rid of them from the premises completely.
Little actions like this can mean you don’t have to try so hard all the time to resist temptation.
10. Write Down Your Motivations
Often, we don’t truly understand all the reasons behind why we want to form good habits or break a bad one until we really think about it.
By consciously devoting time, you may discover even more powerful reasons to make this change, and how it could positively affect others. All of this is more ammunition to keep you inspired.
11. Develop Your Own “If…then” Trigger
Multiple studies show that planning in advance to do something makes you more likely to actually follow through. An “if…then” plan helps you identify situations and preempt your desired response.
“If it’s 10am, then I’ll go for a run”
“If I feel the temptation to eat chocolate, then I’ll take a deep breath and list reasons to not do so”
You can create triggers out of anything, from an action to a visual cue – this can be particularly helpful if you have identified the situations which present the most issues.
12. Ask for Help
There is no shame in asking for support in reaching your goals.
Asking your close friends and family to offer motivation and advice ensures you are surrounding yourself with positive motivation and accountability.
Connecting with others is a very effective way to look after your mental health.
If you feel like you would benefit from a more established and scientific form of support, there are also plenty of support networks that offer free advice (e.g. “Mind”, the mental health charity).
13. Don’t Get Complacent
Doing the right thing all the time can be incredibly tiring, not to mention unrealistic.
At times, your willpower will be vulnerable – maybe this is just one time too many that a frosted-doughnut has been waved in front of your face by your well-intentioned mother.
I mean, what’s the worst that could happen if you take a small break?
Unfortunately, this can turn snowball very quickly, and even threaten all your progress so far. One break may become two, and you could find it a real challenge to refocus.
A good way to avoid this happening is to build in a structured break, like a “cheat day” when dieting. This allows you to recharge and treat yourself, while planning to continue progressing towards your end goal.
14. Celebrate Your victories
Like with any challenge, as you form your good habits you will undoubtedly have highs and lows.
It sounds obvious, but remind yourself that we are all human, and nobody is perfect. As such, we all make mistakes, and slip up from time-to-time.
If you do slip-up, don’t be too hard on yourself. Dust yourself off, and get straight back to it.
More importantly, reflect on the progress you’ve made and how far you’ve come.
Summary
The more time you spend investing in yourself and pursuing long-term self-improvement, the easier that process will become.
However, at some point you will notice that your mind has kicked into autopilot.
When this happens, when you realise that you are doing something without even thinking about it, something which used to require huge amounts of willpower…
I guarantee you’ll be grateful you stayed committed and know it was all worth the effort.
“That which we persist in doing becomes easier — not that the nature of the task has changed, but our ability to do has increased.”
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