How to create good habits.
I’ve been doing some reflection this month on habits; it’s been part of my contemplation around New Year’s resolutions… what do I want to create this year, and how can my habits best support my goals.
I thought I would share some of my thoughts on how to establish good habits.
Awareness of your habits.
Firstly, as with a lot of things, you want to bring some awareness into the space. Get clear on your existing habits. What’s working? What’s not?
Then take some time to really think about what it is that you want to change? What new habits do you want to create?
Start small + make it easy.
My next thought is to start small. It’s the little changes, that if you stick with them, will compound over time. So you don’t need to ‘go big, or go home’… what’s one little step that you can take?
Make it easy. One way to achieve this is to habit stack (I think I’ve also heard this refer to as layering), where you are essentially tagging on a new habit to an existing habit. For instance, if you want to start a journaling habit and you already have a habit of a morning coffee… perhaps you put your notebook next to your coffee machine and do some writing as you drink your coffee. Or put a post-it note on your bathroom mirror to remind you to say some affirmations whilst brushing your teeth.
Another example to make it easy might be if you were wanting to increase time at the gym, then it might make it easier if your gym is on your route to work.
(If it’s a poor habit that you want to remove, then do the opposite - make it hard. I’ve got my chocolate in a locked cabinet upstairs in my home, so it’s harder for me to mindlessly eat it!).
Accountability + track your progress.
I’ve found that telling someone what I’m doing helps; for me this has looked like sharing in a blog post or in a newsletter, or sharing on Instagram… but this could also be sharing with a friend and having them become an accountability partner.
You’re also going to want to track your progress. When you start monitoring something, it typically starts to get better. Is the habit something that you can quantify (i.e. put numbers to, such as the number of minutes you meditated, how many steps you walked). Or it might be a qualitative outcome, which might be more feeling based.
I have a wipeable Habit Tracker on my kitchen wall, where I put a tick or a cross against each of the habits I’ve identified for the week. You can get a copy of the template here, and you can use it digitally or print a copy for your wall too.
“The things we measure are the things we improve. It is only through numbers and clear tracking that we have any idea if we are getting better or worse.”
One mindset shift that I really liked is from Laura Vanderkam, who has proposed that three times a week is a habit. The more you repeat a desired behaviour, the more likely the habit is going to stick… but it doesn’t need to be daily for it to count.
A previous client of mine was working on showing up for himself each day for his morning routine, and was giving himself a hard time because he didn’t manage it 25% of the week… but what he was neglecting was that he did show up 75% of the time.
And lastly, we should celebrate our successes. Rather than waiting until we reach the end goal (that our habits are helping us achieve), we should be celebrating the progress on the journey (plus, more often than not, we move the goal post!). Plan out your celebrations in advance, so you have something to look forward to.
“Habits are not a finish line to be crossed, they’re a lifestyle to be lived.”
If you’d like to try my Habit Tracker (plus a series of other helpful printable templates) you can download them by clicking on the image below >>>
