Building Healthy Habits
What is Habit
A habit is a routine or behaviour performed regularly and, in many cases, automatically. A habit is an unconscious, automatic set of thoughts, behaviours, and emotions acquired through repetition. A habit is a repeated process done so many times that your body knows how to do it better than your mind. It becomes an automatic response due to the intense programming of your repeated behaviour. Here are three tips for building healthy habits:
1) Repetition
If you want to develop and eventually master a habit, the key is to start with repetition, not perfection. Repetition is all about duplication, replication, recurrence. You will need to put in the work through continuous repetition until it becomes unconscious and automatic. You are not required to map out every feature of a new habit. Practice, practice, practice and get as many reps in as possible. The more reps you put in, the quicker it can form into a habit. Studies have shown that the average time to develop is 66 days.
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“And once you understand that habits can change, you have the freedom and the responsibility to remake them.” – Charles Duhigg |
2) Motivation Rituals
Sometimes we can find it challenging to establish and build a new habit. Therefore, it is essential to build motivation rituals alongside them when creating new healthy habits. The way you do this is by doing something you enjoy immediately before engaging in a new or difficult habit. With repetition, over time, you will create a motivation ritual that will act as a coach to guide you into your desired behaviour. A simple way this technique can be used is if you constantly play the same song before starting a workout [positive cue], you'll begin to link the music with the act. Associating your habits with something you enjoy enables you to use that cue whenever you need a bit of motivation.
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“Drop by drop is the water pot filled.” – Buddha |
3) Priming the environment
Priming the environment ensures that you leave the room or space in the proper condition once you finish using it, so it is ready for you the next time around. Vision plays an essential role in creating positive or negative thoughts in our minds. If you feel a bit low or unmotivated and need to clear up the space before doing your healthy habit, it can become a huge stumbling block. The process of priming the environment or 'resetting the room', as it is sometimes called, is paramount. You are priming a room to make the following action easy whenever you organise a space for its intended purpose. Combined with your motivation ritual, they can create a powerful dual. Give yourself the best chance of following through by setting up the environment in advance.
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“Habit is the intersection of knowledge (what to do), skill (how to do), and desire (want to do).” – Stephen R. Covey |
Final Words
Your habits are the key ingredients of your success or failure because habits change into character. As Colin Powell once stated… "If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception; it is a prevailing attitude". The small things count because they create significant results over time, whether for good or bad! Let today be the day you give up who you've been for who you can become. You can achieve it by repetition, establishing your motivation rituals and ensuring that you prime your environment.
I hope you found this blog helpful. Leave a comment below and let me know one thing you will take away.
Kind regards
Ezra AKA Voice of Reason