4 easy tips to creating that new habit.
Our habits are our building blocks to achieving most things in our life, whether that be for your fitness, personal development or finance. The simple habits we create day in and day out will determine if we do or don't achieve our current goals and can simply determine the quality of life we live, so it's important to look at the positive and negative habits that we have ingrained in our day to day lives.
Whether you want to save money, run a marathon or read everyday you'll quickly find the simplest way to achieving any goal is building simple habits into your day or week that become second nature to the point you're able to complete it without thinking about the task.
Our bodies and brains are efficient tools and like to work with the least amount of thought or energy used so to save that energy for when we really may need it, that is why it is so easy to be lazy and shy away from things that may take time or energy. Building a habit hard wires that activity into your brain so you no longer need to strain thinking about it because you've already trained your brain in the task from repeating it.
There are some easy ways to start to create a new habit into your life that will ensure you'll continue with that new habit long term:
Start small - When building a new habit there's no need to make big changes immediately, start small and you'll be more likely to maintain that habit long term and continue to build on it as time goes on.
Attach a habit to another habit - The easiest way to build a habit is to attach it to a habit you already have established. So if you'd like to build the habit of flossing your teeth everyday you know you'll be brushing your teeth every night, you can simply floss immediately after brushing your teeth which will become your new routine.
Increase slowly - Building a new habit will take time and patience so there's no need to run before you can walk. At the start it's more important to ingrain the habit rather than achieving the end goal, so something as simple as reading 2 pages in your book a day or walking 500m three times a week is the perfect place to start.
Be kind to yourself - Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will your habits, they use to say it takes 21 days to establish a new habit but in actual fact you'll find it's closer to 60 days to establish that habit as second nature. So while you're trying to ingrain this new habit be kind to yourself and understand there will be some road blocks but by persisting with these small habits you can have an enormous impact on your life.
