It might surprise you that both bad and good habits take a few months to make or break. Of course, there are exceptions to the rules - for example, smoking.
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But you can build good habits in your life and break bad ones with enough motivation. It might be something like stopping smoking and switching to vaping with a vape starter kit or vape flavour concentrates. Or it might be turning off notifications.
Here are a couple of ways that you can build better habits:
Choose one
If you are hoping to be a completely new person overnight, this isn’t usually sustainable. Instead, you need to choose one thing at a time that you want to build or break. For example, if you want more free time consistently, you will need to avoid cutting things out of your schedule.
Build your free time, and avoid the things that can wait. Choose one thing at a time, and give yourself 3 months of doing it consistently - then add something else.
Motivation
The reason you are doing something can be the determining factor in its success. For example, if you have health concerns and you know that your habit of eating fried foods or not working out isn’t helping - you have a strong motivation there to get started.
Keep your why at the forefront of your mind at all times.
Triggers
Habits are reinforced by triggers - and that means that as soon as X happens, you do Y. Look at the triggers like people, places or outside factors that impact your behaviour. Limit your exposure to those things for the designated 3 months and see how you feel. It can be tricky when it is people who are your trigger, but in the long run, it is better for you.
Routine
Perhaps at a specific time of day, you find yourself searching through the fridge for snacks - even though you have eaten and are not hungry. This routine means you will always do this until it is changed.
Create something to do in that time slot that means you are otherwise occupied and can’t carry out that routine. You can do this for anything you find yourself doing that you rather you didn’t do.
Rewards
Set small rewards for each length of time you manage to achieve your goal. Small rewards offer us little bumps of satisfaction and happy hormones. Each time that happens, you will have more motivation to carry on.
Make sure that you track your progress, too - so that you can see you are changing your habits.
And, if you do slip up - no matter what, be sure to go easy on yourself and continue the next day. Negative feelings attached to trying to make improvements will mean that we are less motivated and feel bad that we didn’t ‘succeed’, but changing is a process that will happen along the way.
Taking care of yourself as you make these improvements is essential: 6 Solutions to Step Up Your Summer Self-Care Strategy.