How to develop new habits

By Unknown - 02:15:00


Every month, I make a list of some goals I'd like to achieve before the end of the month. For the last three months, I was sure to make one of those goals the development of a new habit. Something I'd tried to get the hang of before, but was unsuccessful in keeping it up after the month was over. However, since adding it as one of my goals, I've been successful in both developing these new habits and doing them every day since, without fail.

For August, it was drinking more water and doing the 30-day water challenge, which you can read about my experience with, here. For September, I took up yoga to help relieve stress and get some more activity into my routine. For October, it was working on something I loved but didn't always have the time to work on. For me, this was filmmaking. I spend at least 30 minutes every day scriptwriting, editing or storyboarding,  just generally working on improving my skills and work in that area.

Your habits are responsible for how you live your life. Bad habits can prevent you from becoming the person you aspire to be. Habits are responsible for your happiness, your health, how successful you are, just to name a few.

I first started wanting to develop new habits when I got back into health and fitness. I was curious to see how much water i was drinking, which led to me doing the 30-day water challenge. This then fuelled me to look into other areas, where I knew I could improve both myself and my lifestyle.

There a few ways to develop new habits; one of which is a habit tracker. You can find these all over the internet, I personally used Tumblr to find the one I used, or you could make your own. These are amazing for tracking multiple habits at one given time, especially if your main goal is something little like making your bed every day.
In order to make one of your own, you need to number 1-30 or 1-31, depending on the month you're starting, with the name of your goal down the left hand side. As I said before, habit trackers are the best at tracking multiple habits at one given time.

Credit: http://www.lifeonwaller.com/free-printable-daily-habit-tracker/
In order to develop and track a new habit you need to do a couple of things:

1. It takes 28 days to form a new habit. This is all the time you need in order to make a habit automatic. I personally start on the first of the month, as it's easier to keep track off and easier to sustain. 

2. Consistency is key. Try and do it every single day, for that one month period. 

3. If you're setting yourself a much harder habit, like drinking more water, start at trying to aim for 1 more litre per day, over trying to drink 3 more litres in a single day. By starting off small and allowing your body to adjust to the intake, makes it far more easier to sustain in the long run. Start off with drinking 1 more litre and continue to build on it. 

4. Do it for yourself. Imagine how worth it, you're newly developed habit will be in the long run. Changing your diet? Think of the health benefits. Studying more? How much you'll grades will improve. 

I hope this little blog post inspired you to think of trying to develop a new habit or motivated you to do so. 



  • Share:

You Might Also Like

0 comments