By Nabitali Victoria Bbosa
How to develop good habits, means we’re adding something, or subtracting something, and we have to figure out what that is. Melissa further states that; habits make up 40% of our everyday behavior. Melissa Riddle who is the Chief of the Behavioral and Social Sciences Research at the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, says:
Habits are behaviors we perform on a daily basis. A behavior is a habit if some component of it is at least somewhat programmed.
For instance;
If I said ‘I need to go the gym for an hour three times each week,’ the primary thing I’d need to make sense of is, what am I not going to do during those hours.
But we don’t tend to consider that. So one incredible mystery to succeeding at change is to know about what won’t occur once you begin going to the gym.
The issue is that we get entirely happy with doing things a similar way every single day. We regularly absentmindedlystick to a day by day schedule without considering the result or effectiveness of it. Why change?
With a habit, some sign triggers a behavior. For instance, the pleasure of checking your phone where bored is the reward. Sometimes the reward is not so easy to spot.
Unfortunately, not all of our habits are healthy, or good. If we are in the habit of coming home after work each day and reaching for an alcoholic drink to relax instead of doing some simple exercise to release pressure, it will unfavorably affect our health.
Or on the other hand, if, while watching TV at night we tend to snack on chips and drink soda as opposed to crunching on veggies and drinking organic juice, it will at last lead to the outcome of poor health
So how do you develop good habits
1. Find healthy ways to reward yourself.
One of the reasons we develop many bad habits in the first place is because they make us feel good, even if it’s just temporarily. The experience of feeling good is meant to soothe us when we’re stressed, dejected, or just plain out of sorts.
For example, you might over-eat and feel really good while doing it, but then you feel twice as bad afterwards. The same goes for smoking or drinking too much. While you’re in the act you feel relaxed and trouble free, however, afterwards you feel remorse and vow to quit – soon.
So, in order to minimize falling off the wagon and slipping back into old, detrimental habits, reward yourself when you’ve done well. Treat yourself to a new book, a movie, a concert, or new exercise equipment. If you’re short on cash, visit a friend you haven’t seen for a while.
The wonderful benefit of developing good habits is that after doing them repeatedly, they soon become automatic. Anything you do for a long while and consistently enough eventually becomes a habit, and once it does, you no longer have to put much effort into it. Such is the beauty of developing good habits.
2. Divide a habit into smaller steps
Concentrating on each thing in turn is the most ideal approach to guarantee consistency. If possible, make it as easy as possible for yourself by dividing a habit into smaller steps. Large life and social changes can be scary, it’s considerably less unpleasant to concentrate on something little.
Take moving more, for instance. It’s a great habit and it’s super healthy to be active. But where one should start? Doing all possible activities at once will leave a person tired very quickly. Instead, it’s best to start small, focus on one thing at a time and ‘build as you go’: For example: start with the following behavior;
Take the stairs instead of elevators
Park the car further from the entrance
Commute by bicycle
Walk 10,000 steps per day
3. Minimize or eliminate the stimuli
Frequently habits are triggered by outside stimuli or the environment itself. Some are acceptable and profitable, such as stopping at red lights or wearing seatbelts when in a car. Others not so much, like message notifications that force people to interrupt focused work and check their phone.
To stop the undesirable behavior, search for external stimuli you can limit or remove (in any event, for some time) to abstain from triggering a specific habit.
For instance, tidy up the work area if mess keeps you from focusing. Or put on noise cancelling headphones if noise is what distracts you.
4. Create systems to automate the good habit and stop the bad one
What makes the habit stick, both good and bad one; is automation. In any case, Regardless, whether you want to develop good habits or cut bad ones, a system is much more powerful than willpower.
Automating good habits is simple. All one needs to do is reduce the complexity of a good habit and increase it for the bad one. That will make the desired behaviour the easiest one to do.
For example;
Put your phone in the next room while working, that way you won’t be distracted by all notifications. Lay out running clothes the evening before, once you wear them in the morning it’s much easier to get out the door.
5. Employ visualization and affirmations.
Visualization and affirmations are great for integrating the new habit into your routine. While visualization is a powerful motivational tool and energizer, affirmations program the subconscious with the right mindset for establishing a new habit.
Together they allow you to feel and imagine yourself carrying out the correct behaviors making it easier to adopt the new habit. Certainly developing good habits is easier when employing visualization and affirmations.
6. Get support from family and friends.
Get support from people who know what you’re trying to accomplish. This way they will understand if you want to pass up the desert or go for a walk instead of stopping at the pub on the way home.
When your friends know you are serious about changing a bad habit into a good one, not only will they help you steer away from temptations, they will cheer you on and give you moral support. We all need support in achieving our goals.