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Habits account for about 40 percent of an individual’s behavior, which is key to personal growth. Having a good understanding of how to build good habits is important in ensuring you lead a healthy and happy life. In fact, your life today is just an essential sum of your habits. How fit or unfit you are; how successful or unsuccessful you are; how healthy or unhealthy you are. All these are as a result of your habits. They form the person you are and the personality you bring out.
But what happens if you want to improve yourself? How do you go about forming new habits? It turns out that there’s a helpful guide that can make it easier for you to stick to these new habits that can be life-changing. It is a strategic guide that can help you build new habits and stick to them.
Basic Level
Make the habit so easy that you can’t say no. – Leo Babauta
Most people make the wrong approach when it comes to starting a habit. You will hear them say something like, “I need more motivation.” Or, “ I wish I had the drive as you to do something.”
Waking up very early, training hard, following a healthy nutrition plan is the perfect routine in starting a habit. The start is very important. The best way to start and finish is by taking small steps. The important thing to note in making small steps is the consistent progress. Instead of starting with 30 pushups per day, start with just 5 pushups per day. Rather than working out for two hours per day, start by working out for 30 minutes per day. Repeating these small steps will build your confidence, boost your motivation and give you results.
Intermediate Level
The biggest mistake that people make when starting a new habit is having vague intentions. As Charles Duhigg says in his book The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do In Life And Business, “the truth is, the brain can be reprogrammed. You just have to be deliberate about it.”
Start with a change in thoughts and mental feelings. In fact, when you invest a lot of time, energy, and resources to something, it becomes harder to quit. Get a calendar and hang it on a prominent wall in your room. Start putting a red X over each completed habit every day. This is a good way to create a physical representation of your efforts. Identify your hobby and work towards developing it every day. When you do this for a while, you will find enough motivation to get the chain going. Once you learn how to do it once, you can do it again and again until you form a solid framework for that habit.
Advanced Level
This is the execution stage. Most people never find a clear answer about why they want the change to occur. This seems like a small thing, but it plays a huge role in increasing your motivation. There is no need to make so many efforts to be who you are. You need to feel free in this role and be comfortable in sharing your story.
In fact, some can achieve their habits by writing stories, books or even blogging. Perhaps you are enthusiastic about being in shape, you can start a blog on personal development and offer fitness tips. This will be the first step towards achieving your victory, but you need to create the right routines. In the end, focus is important for any sort of personal development since it allows for consistent progress in one thing at a time. Decide, take the necessary action, and execute without worrying about anything else.
Conclusion
When you set to create a new habit, it is important to remain focused and look at the long-term results. As Geoffrey Hodgson says “Individuals have habits; groups have routines.” So you should strive to stick to your habits which will be determined by the repetitive things you do to remain consistent in the habit. These levels will help you create a habit and form a consistent schedule until you achieve that habit.
Amanda Wilson
http://blog.sivanaspirit.com/start-personal-growth-habit/