We all want to be a better version of ourselves, but not everyone gets to do so because many of us fail in breaking bad habits. Although most of us are fully aware that some of our habits are not beneficial for our self-improvement and are holding us back, we still find it really difficult to get rid of them right?.
Well, here’s a secret for you. Instead of placing all your efforts and will-power in breaking old habits, you should focus on creating new habits.
Contrary to what many think, it only takes a small amount of discipline and effort to create new habits that you can maintain for a long time. That’s because it is hard work fighting old stubborn habits, but a lot easier creating new ones.
Here are the tips on how you can form new habits and how you can make them stick:
- Do it for 30 days. Yes, you only need 3 to 4 weeks to make a habit automatic. Once you’ve passed the conditioning stage, you’ll find that it’s a lot easier to sustain. 30 days is ideal because it can easily fit in your calendar.
- Do it consistently. Consistency is key if you want to maintain a new habit. Whatever your goal, place your energy, effort and focus on doing it every single day in order to develop your new habit. If you’re not consistent it won’t stick!
- Do it slowly but surely. There’s no way you can totally change your life in a single day. When you’re over-committed, you’re likely to take on too much, but this won’t be good for you in the long run because you might get tired of it pretty soon as well. Start with something simple and build on that. As your confidence grows, take on more and step more out of your comfort zone.
- Make yourself remember your commitment. After about two weeks from the time you started a new habit, it’s likely that you will forget about it as your initial stage of excitement wears off. What you can do is put reminders so you can consistently stick with your new habit.
- Have someone to do it with you. Everything we do becomes more fun with another person. Take note that it’s important that you enjoy doing your new habit so you will be more likely to keep it. It is also nice to be accountable to someone.
- Replace lost needs. When it comes to creating new habits, you will be dissolving old ones, too. And it’s vital that you adequately replace the needs you’re giving up. If you’re quitting smoking, for example, you may consider chewing carrot sticks instead whenever you feel the urge to smoke. Nature abhors a vacuum, so fill that space with something positive.
- Don’t ever give up. Replacing old habits and creating new ones is not an easy process, but it’s very much doable. You don’t want to end up feeling frustrated just because you’re expecting too much from yourself. You just have to try your best, but you should also expect to be challenged along the way.
We all have bad habits, even those in the most respected leaders in the world need to give up some of their habits so they could become better leaders.
Bad habits are not just limited to things like, smoking, drinking, but also things that stop you in your career or your job. These would be things like, being late all the time, leaving things to the last minute, procrastinating, over committing yourself etc.
If you want to succeed in becoming a better individual and leader you should get help and invest in yourself. If you are looking for a business coach in New York or surrounding states let me know how I can help.
Peace!
Kenneth