We’ve all tried to build habits that didn’t stick. That’s because building habits is not easy, and it takes a huge commitment to add something regular into your daily life.
If you’ve struggled to build habits in the past, or if you just want some tips to help you with new ones, check out these six tips:
Focus on one habit
Changing a lifestyle requires a lot of change. However, you can’t do it all at one time. You have to build up to it over time. Pick one thing and devote your focus to it.
Let’s say you want to wake up earlier, learn to play guitar, and read 10 pages a day. You’re going to have a tough time fitting all of those new things in at the same time. On top of that, you aren’t going to do your best at any of these things.
Start small
Massive change starts with a small step first. If you want to build a big habit, you have to make a bunch of small habits.
Eating healthier is a big, broad habit to build. Instead of a complete overhaul of your entire diet, start small. Have more salads at lunch, drink water with dinner, or pack healthy snacks. Slowly add more small habits when you feel comfortable.
Commit to a time frame
It can take a couple of weeks to a year to build a habit depending on who you are and what practice you’re trying to develop. On average, it takes around 66 days for a habit to become automatic.
Let’s say you want to commit to 30 days at first. Lock that into your calendar. Know what day you start and what day 30 is.
Map out the time frame
Schedule out the entire time frame to the hour if you can. Building a habit requires DAILY commitment.
It helps if you can write out your schedule. Plan when and how you’re going to add that habit into every day in your time frame. That way, you learn to expect it, and you won’t be short on time to do it.
Track your progress
Once you complete your habit for the day, cross it off on a checklist. It helps if it is physical, but a digital checklist works too.
This is a way to reward yourself every day for building the habit. You’ll be surprised how good it feels to see yourself get one step closer to a formed habit, especially if you really don’t want to do it that day.
Commit wholeheartedly
At the end of the day, if you aren’t fully committed to building the habit, you won’t. You have to truly want to do it.
Life changes every day. If you’re giving your habit half-effort, you won’t survive the constant change. Understand your reasoning for wanting to change, and tell others about it.
Hold yourself accountable.
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