Five specific tips to help you maintain your new habits
3 min read
Sticking to a new habit is hard and, most people abandon their good habits after a few days. In this article, we will give a few tips to help you with your new habits.
Habits are shortcuts that our brain creates to help us doing repetitive tasks in our day-to-day. Simple things like checking both sides of the road before crossing or more complex like brushing our teeth before going to bed.
We do these things almost effortlessly, which allows us to spend parts of our day on autopilot.
This is great for things we've been doing for years but creating new habits that last in time is very difficult. Most people are able to stick with a new habit for a few days, maybe a couple of weeks but end up abandoning it after a while.
In this article, we bring you some tactics to help you create new habits and stick to them 💪
1. Be specific
When we decide to start a new habit it's a good idea to be as specific as possible. Define when are you going to do it, how many times, where are you going to do it, with whom... everything you can think of.
Thinking about all these parameters will help you visualize yourself actually making the habit and minimize friction so it would be a lot easier for you to actually do it.
2. Adapt your mentality
Focus on who you want to become and change your mentality. If you want to run a marathon, instead of thinking "I have to go for a run today" think "As a marathon runner, I'm going to go for a run today".
Putting yourself in the shoes of the person you want to become, will change the way you approach your habits and will help you make better decisions in your day-to-day.
visualize yourself actually making the habit and minimize friction so it would be a lot easier for you to actually do it.
3. Remove the obstacles
Prepare things in advance so when the time comes, the habit itself is not an obstacle to go through, just the next step on the day. Pack your gym bag the previous day, keep that book you want to read on your side table, or keep your smartphone away from your desk until you finish your work.
In addition, try to avoid people that can drag you off-course and instead, surround yourself with people with similar objectives. A new challenge is a lot easier when we share it with colleagues.
4. Establish rewards
The tricky thing with habits is that most of the time, results appear after a long time so keeping yourself motivated is key. Rewarding yourself from time to time is a great way to do it. Be nice to yourself, and remember to celebrate every small win.
surround yourself with people with similar objectives. A new challenge is a lot easier when we share it with colleagues.
5. Start small
Maybe the most important tip. Most people like challenges but when things are too complicated we tend to get tired and quit. On the other hand, when things are too easy, we get bored easily so it's very important to find the perfect balance.
Our habits should be easy for us to tackle every day but also something that is challenging enough that we feel the accomplishment once we completed.
We hope these tips help you kick-start your new habits and remember that you can use theLIFEBOARD to track your progress towards new habits.
