There is a process to forming healthy habits.
Habits are at the foundational core of every human being.
No matter if it’s running a business, personal hygiene, diet, exercise, maintaining relationships, or battling anxiety, your habits will play a large role in defining your life. You cannot achieve substantial goals with subpar habits, and conversely, by improving your habits you can grow in almost every area of your life.
When you improve your daily habits, your lifestyle will become healthier and more fulfilling over time. And when your habits become unhealthy and unsustainable, the opposite will occur.
Habits are important.
Yet so few people know anything about them.
What are habits at their core?
How do you form a habit?
What techniques help aid in habit formation?
These are all essential questions in creating long-term, sustainable habits.
Let’s dig a little deeper and start with the basics.
WHAT IS A HABIT
Habits are defined as “a settled tendency or usual manner of behavior.”
Although people are likely familiar with habits, many do not fully understand what makes a habit.
Author James Clear’s bestseller, “Atomic Habits,” is an insightful read on creating better habits. Journalist Charles Duhigg’s bestseller, “The Power of Habits,” covers the power of habits within businesses, politics, and organizations. Both are excellent reads on the topic of habit formation.
When describing habits, think in terms of building blocks.
Healthy habits are robust and reliable building blocks in which to create a sustainable foundation. While unhealthy habits are quite the opposite, they are the damaged, broken building blocks that crumble under any pressure.
HEALTHY HABITS = STRONG, STABLE BUILDING BLOCKS.
UNHEALTHY HABITS = WEAK, UNSTABLE BUILDING BLOCKS.
Now, what do habits look like in our daily lives?
Habits can encompass anything from getting up at a particular time, dietary preferences, thought processes to workout routines (or lack thereof).
They also can be more subtle activities like brushing teeth, putting on shoes or socks, and turning on a specific radio station when getting into your car.
The critical aspect of defining habits in your life is being aware of them. Developing a level of mindfulness is key.
You also want to understand which habits are hurting your mental health and be sure to either reduce or eliminate those habits.
THE HABIT LOOP
Researchers studying habits at MIT found a simple, neurological “loop” at every habit’s core.
They refer to this as the habit loop.
But what is it, exactly?
The habit loop consists of three fundamental elements: A cue, a routine, and a reward.
Here is a breakdown of each:
Cue: The trigger for an automatic behavior to begin
Routine: The actual behavior itself
Reward: The “high” the brain gets from the routine
Author and habits expert James Clear defines the habit loop as the cue, craving, response, and reward. He replaces routine with craving and response, but essentially, they mean the same.
Understanding the habit loop is the first step in making any long-lasting changes to your daily habits. Without this knowledge, you won’t have the foundation to create sustainable healthy habits while breaking unhealthy ones.
The first step is recognizing the cue. The cue can be anything from a time, a location, a preceding event, an emotional state, or other people. Once you start spotting the cues in your environment, you’re enhancing the awareness around your habit loops. Doing so will make it easier to spot and change habits that aren’t aligned with who you want to be.
What are some tips you can use to help form new habits?
MAKE THE HABIT SO SMALL IT CAN’T FAIL
When you look at any habit, making sure the new habit is small enough that you will not fail is critical. Many people try to force change too fast, often skipping important baby steps and instead, trying to leap ten feet forward. Doing this is a recipe for failure.
Instead, try making a habit so small that you cannot say no to doing it.
If you want to get back in shape, try doing one sit-up or one pushup a day. And then up it by one every day (or whatever amount of time feels right for you).
If you want to read a novel, start by reading one page per day and slowly increasing as the weeks go on.
Or if you want to run a marathon, try by doing cardio for just thirty seconds a day, then increase a few seconds a day from there.
These are all examples of starting small, so small that failing is not an option.
SET REALISTIC, ATTAINABLE GOALS FOR YOUR HABIT
Piggybacking off the previous tip, setting realistic, attainable goals is a smart tactic for just about any area of life. Whether it’s health, relationships, saving money, or building a business, people tend to get lost in unrealistic and unattainable goals. I’m not saying you shouldn’t “shoot for the moon” and think big, but you need to understand nothing life-changing happens overnight.
Forming healthy habits is no different.
How many times have you heard the following statement or similar from someone you know:
“I’m going to start getting up at 6 am every single morning and work out for two straight hours!”
“When I start my new business I will be making TONS of money within the year!”
“I am never going to eat junk food ever again!”
Those all sound nice and good, but that isn’t realistic nor helpful when it comes to building healthy habits. Sure, having a positive and upbeat attitude about your future is beneficial, but it will only get you so far.
You need to set realistic, attainable goals to keep habits around long term.
Instead of saying “I am going to start waking up at 6am every morning!” when you’re accustomed to waking up at 9am, a more realistic and attainable goal at first would be waking up at 8:45am instead of 9am.
Creating realistic and attainable goals will give you a jumping-off point for your habits, while also keeping it simple so you can learn the art of habit formation and stay on course.
GET 1% BETTER EACH DAY
This may be one of the most important and helpful aspects of proper habit formation.
Have you noticed a theme so far?
Small, attainable actions and goals are a major part of creating sustainable and positive habits.
The one percent idea is no different.
In most areas of life, when people hear a percentage as tiny as one, they don’t get too excited. But when it comes to habit formation, one percent is an absolute game-changer when applied daily.
One percent daily improvements add up fairly quickly and can make a big difference.
Rather than trying to accomplish some incredible feat early on, just try being consistent by getting one percent better each day. That’s it. There’s no magic to it. James Clear, author of the New York Times Best Seller Atomic Habit, points out that your willpower will increase over time which will make it easier to stick to your habit for good.
He says that if you stick to adding one percent to your habit each day, then two or three months later you’ll find yourself increasing very quickly. As Clear points out, it’s essential to keep each habit reasonable so that you can maintain momentum.
Another technique you can use is breaking these habits into “chunks.”
For example – if your goal is to meditate for thirty minutes per day then break it up into two fifteen-minute meditations.
Or if you’re trying to do 40 sit-ups in one day, break it up into two sets of twenty.
Chunking is another way to make habits manageable and help yourself improve by that one percent per day.
DO NOT MISS TWICE
You will inevitably slip up when forming new habits.
You might miss a day at the gym, or forget to set your alarm clock or skip your morning meditation session.
It’s okay, no need to panic!
This is normal and common. Even top performers will miss sessions and skip workouts now and then.
But the key is to NOT MISS TWO IN A ROW.
Once you miss two, it’ll escalate into three, and then four, etc.
As Clear points out, you “shouldn’t expect failure, but you should plan for it.”
He says that you should plan and try to pinpoint any pitfalls along the way. What are the things that could push you off track?
The key to forming healthy habits is consistency, not perfection.
STICK TO A SUSTAINABLE PACE
One of the reasons many people fail in forming healthy habits is that they rush through the process. You simply cannot hurry the process of creating long-term sustainable positive habits. You need to pace yourself and understand that this is a long-term process, not a short-term quick fix.
For example, if someone told you that you need to run a mile under a certain amount of time (a reasonable, yet challenging number for you personally), you would need to put together a plan of action to pace yourself. First, you might start by slowly jogging to build up endurance. Then, you may start to run a little faster and enhance your time. And finally, you will learn exactly what pace works best for you while maintaining an efficient speed and not getting too easily winded. If you blasted out of the starting line and ran full speed, you’ll likely run out of gas by the last few laps.
This same equation should be applied to creating habits.
Pace yourself, play the long-term game, and keep your focus on small and consistent growth.
REWARD YOURSELF
Rewarding yourself is the last part of the habit loop and a big part in forming healthy habits.
Charles Duhigg, the author of the best-selling book The Power Of Habit, who also happens to be an expert on behavioral psychology, says that most people tend to adequately reward themselves on action taken towards a beneficial habit.
One interesting perspective to take on the reward system is looking at it inversely. Take unhealthy, addictive, and destructive habits, for example, and look at how the reward system is set up. Most unhealthy, addictive, and destructive habits such as binging on alcohol, snorting cocaine, or smoking a cigarette light up the part of the brain with the neurotransmitter dopamine, which plays a role in how we feel pleasure.
Because these unhealthy habits “turn on” the pleasure center of the brain automatically without you even realizing it, the reward system is automatically set up. In turn, we become addicted to things that aren’t good for us because they automatically feel good.
On the other hand, many positive habits such as running, exercise, and meditation don’t necessarily have immediate and obvious rewards attached to them. So this is where giving yourself a small reward such as a little dark chocolate after exercise, or coffee right after you wake up, can help release similar neurochemicals in the feel-good center of the brain.
Doing this will help you stick with these habits over a long period until they become second nature.
BE PATIENT
Patience truly is a virtue.
And when it comes to forming healthy habits, patience will get you far.
I can tell you from personal experience that forming long-lasting, healthy habits is a game of patience. No long-term positive habit will be created overnight. It won’t happen. You need to take perspective and realize that if you stick with it, you will see results. If you are inconsistent and don’t put the daily effort into it, the habit will not pan out over time.
Patience, like with most good things in life, is so important when forming healthy habits.
IN REVIEW
Forming healthy habits is a long-term process. Nothing worthwhile in the habit formation game comes easily or quickly. You need to have patience, maintain a consistent schedule, give yourself some grace, and break up your larger goals into small, bite-sized pieces that are easily attainable. If you put together this sort of long-term vision before you even start, it’ll enhance your chances of creating those long-term positive habits that can help improve your life.
If you have any questions or would like a free mindset coaching consultation – contact me at brad@upplifter.com!
Although we strive to provide accurate general information, the information presented here is not a substitute for any kind of professional advice, and you should not rely solely on this information. Always consult a professional in the medical and health area for your particular needs and circumstances prior to making any medical or health-related decisions. For your health-related questions, please seek the advice of a licensed physician or any other qualified health care provider immediately.
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