Learn the best steps to create or break a habit
Habits are usually born or cultivated, and they are usually actions that we execute almost unconsciously. But since there are good and bad, key questions arise about how to produce them or leave them?
Many guides offer you techniques on how to quit a vice, which in the end is nothing more than a bad habit, but little is said about how to generate one, which is necessary if you need to add a healthy practice to your daily routine.
Here I show you step by step, what you should do if you want a good habit in your life, and as a bonus, I will also give you some tips on how to eliminate some that you do not like.
Steps to create good habits
Whether reading, exercising, or simply getting up at a specific time, good habits should be cultivated, and if you want to achieve these or any other, what you should do is the following:
1. One Habit at a Time: Clarity and Focus
To generate a habit requires concentration and discipline, which is difficult to achieve if the mind is divided into several fronts.
First, establish what practice you want to add to your rhythm of life, study its benefits and be clear about the goal you want.
Do not start several routines at the same time or it will be more complicated for you, and be very specific in what you want to achieve, since the more defined your plan is, the easier it will be for you to fulfill it.
2. Do not get carried away by emotions
It is very likely that at the beginning you will feel very excited about the first results, but this is not a reason for you to increase the pace of what you do. Habits are defined by consistency, not intensity, so worry more about the time you've been practicing it.
3. Use sources of motivation
The first that you can apply is to tell everyone what you want to achieve, of course, as long as this is not something more private. This helps you feel a commitment to the people you told about your challenge, which motivates you not to give up.
You can use other sources, such as a poster or visual elements that challenge you to meet your goal. Surround yourself with phrases and people with a positive attitude, who encourage you and let you know that you can achieve it.
4. Recognize when you fail
Excuses will only make you lose interest little by little, the healthiest thing is to accept when you do not meet your daily goal. Evaluate the factors that contributed to your failure and strive so that it does not happen again.
Discipline is productive when it doesn't have much flexibility, and if we're talking about getting the body into a routine, pretexts, and excuses aren't going to help progress.
5. Reminders are necessary
The alarms, posters, calendars, and everything are useful for you so that you do not forget your daily goal, you must apply it to the maximum when it is starting.
Most of those fail to cultivate a habit, it is because they do not remember the schedules and days that they establish.
Currently, there are no excuses for these memory failures, on your cell phone, you can program a whole series of daily reminders to help you achieve your goals.
6. Measure progress
According to your goal, measure how your progress has been, you must evaluate if you have seen results, how long you have been able to comply with the habit, how many times have you failed, and if with the passing of days it has become more comfortable or uncomfortable. fulfill it.
You must measure the progress, this can be done in weekly periods, only then will you know if it is worth continuing or if you should give up, readjust or restart with your goal.
7. Celebrate achievements
No matter how small the progress is, make sure you celebrate it in some way, with some simple action that motivates you.
Small steps are what will lead you to big changes, and you must keep in mind that even if you fail, giving up is not an option.
Tips to kick a bad habit
If creating them is not easy, leave them much less, but it does not mean that it is impossible, just focus on the following:
Start by defining the problem: You must be clear about what the fault is, how and why it affects you, when you run it and how often.
You must interrupt the habit process: Find a way to make your routine not be carried out. If you know well how it proceeds and what causes it, it will be easy for you to interrupt it.
Replacing the habit is easier than eliminating it: It is very good at dealing with addictions such as junk food, cigarettes, or mobile devices. The idea is that when you feel the need for one of these, you use a healthier supplement.
Reflect on the risks and extreme cases: Every bad habit has consequences, knowing them in depth makes us motivated to persist in abandoning them.
The key is to persevere: No matter how many times you fail, you must keep trying, because your brain gradually assimilates the progress, and sooner or later you will succeed.
How long does it take to establish, change or break a habit?
Commonly, we have been told that just executing a continuous activity for 21 days makes it routine, but this does not apply to all cases.
According to studies, the true estimate is between 18 to 254 days, but most achieve it at 66.
This response to a great truth, and that is that not all people; nor their organisms, work the same. Not all habits contain the same degree of difficulty.
The 21-day rule applies to the simplest routines, however, you can't be sure.
In summary, what must be clear is that what is going to achieve the establishment of a habit more than the method is determination and perseverance.