You want to get healthy and make habits that last. You know what you should be doing, the question is how do you get yourself to do. Inside I share 10 tiny habits that will change yourself without taking all of your time.
Six weeks of repetitive behavior is the key to creating habits – or is it?
I’ve long thought that if I just repeated something healthy long enough, it would automatically stick. The only discipline I needed was that initial six-weeks, and then it would just be a part of who I was.
On some level – it seemed realistic. Most good things come with a level of discipline. On the other side, no matter how long I prevailed, nothing seemed to stick, at least not in the way I had hoped.
These habits I was trying to form always seemed like an uphill battle that went well some days, and yet others felt like a miserable failure. Until I realized I had the wrong view of habit formation.
It wasn’t strictly about pushing through and using willpower – but behavior modification involved more of me – my drive, motivation, and ability.
Inside today’s podcast, I interview behavioral scientists, BJ Fogg, Ph.D. He founded the Behavior Design Lab at Stanford University and is the leading scientific authority on habits. I ask him questions about what creates a habit, how hard we have to push ourselves, and how to make things stick.
tiny habits
Ripping the bandaid off is a common approach to behavior modification. If you can just do it all at once, maybe it won’t be that difficult. But the reality is, the greater the change, the greater the obstacles making it much more difficult to achieve.
That’s just one reason traditional habit formation doesn’t work, because it’s not just about forcing a behavior into practice. To build the habit in the brain and help it to stick, we have to enjoy the practice.
The Fogg Behavior Model shows three elements must include for a behavior to occur and habits to stick: motivation, ability, and prompt. If anyone of these is missing from the behavior change, most likely, it will never become a habit.
habit freedom
I like to believe there is a lot of freedom that comes with this model. It’s no longer about doing something or being confined to something for the sake of hating it. Like I always say, you can never hate yourself healthy.
You also can’t flip your life in a completely different direction and expect massive results. Changing the entire structure of your life is unrealistic and generally doesn’t work. There is too much to overcome. But if you can pick one or two simple practices – simple things that can easily be completed without willpower – you will align yourself for success.
Remember, a habit takes enjoyment and a feeling of success.
So set the bar low – and work to achieve something you could do on your worst days. Let that build the success and excitement you need to see change.
10 healthy habits
There is an indefinite number of habits that you could create, so don’t get bogged down doing something that someone else does just because you think you need to. Pick habits that you want to do.
As BJ states: “Help yourself do what you already want to do.”
Just because it worked for someone else, doesn’t mean it should be what you do – but do what you already want to do. Here are 10 tiny habits that I wanted in my own life. I hope it sparks some interest in creating your list.
- Take 10 minutes of silence daily
- A glass of water first thing in the morning
- A daily walk in the morning sun
- Go to Bed 15 minutes earlier than normal
- Floss daily
- Have a daily brain dump
- Read, just to read for 5 minutes a day
- Set social media curfew {mine is 8:00 pm}
- Write one prayer a day
- Eat a veggie-based meal one time a day
resources
- BJ Fogg, PhD
- Tiny Habits: The Small Changes that Change Everything
- Daily Habits for Increased Happiness
- Why It’s So Hard to Change Even with a Positive Mindset
- Reinventing Self-Care into Soul-Care
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