How to form a habit effectively?

Much is said about changing habits, about good habits. But how to implement them and why the way they are incorporated into our lives is so important?

 

Do you know when some activity becomes a habit, you start to do it automatically? When you manage to put into practice a habit you have learned, you begin to do it unconsciously, slowly, gradually, it becomes a part of your life - like blinking. You don't even have to think about it - such a habit is really a big help. Because you do it automatically, you don't have to fight or force yourself to do it - you just act and that's it. Do you want to stop fighting yourself? Make a habit - it will become part of your everyday life 🙂

 

What exactly are habits? And how do they work?

 

A habit is simply a regularly repeated activity that we do unconsciously. Our busy mind wants to be lazy, so it tries to minimize effort. How? Mental energy spent on repetition of behavior gradually begins to do automatically. Great right?

 

Let me tell you a curiosity - you know that habit can be thought or emotion? Thanks to the fact that you can try to do something positive every day, you can change your life, it can become happier and fuller 🙂

 

How long does the habit develop?

 

Well, Rome was built in a day. But it's also not a very long time. You can form a habit from 18 to 254 days - on average 66 days. Of course, a lot depends on your commitment. The first 5 days are considered to be the most difficult - you know how difficult it is to force yourself to exercise for the first few or a dozen or so days, and then ... you can't live without them :-). This is just a habit!

 

 

How to form a habit effectively? 5 basic rules

1. Gradually, only one habit at a time

It is important that all our attention focused on one new activitythat you want to bring into your life. Trying to develop only one habit, you can give him more attention, you can get more involved. Thanks to this, you won't be discouraged so easily.

 

2. Make a habit of being motivated

I also talk about the wave in my Wedding Planner Course - I see the wave as a sine wave. It is easier introduce a new habit when you're on the wave of motivation. You must have a good strategy to introduce a habit, because you will not always want to, you will not always be on the wave when it is "at the top". Do you know what you will consider success? Then when you are still motivated, whether it be the third, fifth, or thirtieth day of introducing a habit, you will do it without complaining. In the end, you will manage to act with this good habit regardless of whether you are motivated or not - you will already be running on the slot machine 🙂

 

3. Start with a small habit

Let me explain with an example: Think how much easier it would be to start with a 10 minutes a day on a stationary bike than an hour? However, if you make a habit of sitting on this bike for a while every day and gradually increasing your pedaling time, you are well on your way to introducing a good habit!

 

Why is that enough? Because it is important for repeatability, not duration, to make a habit. Once you get into the habit of getting on this bike every day, you will gradually increase the time up to 30-40 minutes or longer. And you won't even notice when 🙂

 

The principle is very simple: the new habit should be initially easy and motivation big - there is a good chance that you will want to do a small activity when you have nice goals that you can approach.

 

4. Stimulus - accompanying habit

There is an easy way not to forget to develop a new habit. Find yourself an "anchor", an activity that you are already unconsciously doing every day, and under which you put on a new habit.

 

E.g? If you do a few bends in the morning every day - a new habit of several squats settle into your habit. Make slopes + squats. If you follow one habit after another, you probably won't forget about it, especially if it is still poorly educated.

 

5. Reward!

Developing a habit is hard work sometimes - you deserve a gift! Appreciate yourself, your motivation and stubbornness - for example, after a series of exercises, you certainly deserve a relaxing bath or what else you like

 

 

Isn't that interesting? And you? What habit would you like to develop at home?

 

3 comments
Leave a comment:

  • 14.04.2020

    I recommend the book "Strength of Habit" - it is very substantive and vividly presented how these habits work, how to change them and how to consolidate them 🙂 The entry is a great telegraph shortcut, so I rate it as highly as possible :)

    • Agnieszka Kudela
      15.04.2020

      Thank you :*

  • 06.04.2020

    The first point is the most important. It is important that this is only one habit at a time!