How to Build New Healthier Habits

We all have the ability to change, but choosing to be patient and resilient through hardship is the real work.

We all want to become a better version of ourselves. This all starts with identifying bad habits and creating new ones in their place. Wendy Wood, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Southern California (USC) researched and found that a stunning 43% of everyday actions are enacted habitually. Habits determine our overall mental health, physical health, and life happiness.

Creating habits is simple, but sticking to a program is the challenging choice we have to continually make.

Below are 5 ways to create healthier habits.

START WITH SOMETHING SMALL

The reason why many people have a difficult time building new habits is their belief system. We sometimes create narratives believing that we need more time, motivation, and willpower—things we can always choose to create or already have.

A Stanford professor named B.J. Fogg states that we have “motivational waves” that rise and fall. This is our willpower that is similar to our muscles which fatigue when we use it daily.

We must try to eliminate this mental fatigue by choosing new habits that are easily obtainable—not needing so much willpower to do so. Instead of saying that you’re going to run 1 mile a day, start with doing a quarter-mile or 560 steps. Instead of saying you’re going to change your diet completely, start with changing one meal for obtainability.

Make this first step of change an easy transition so that we don’t have to “motivate” ourselves to do a simple task.

START INCREASING YOUR HABIT INCREMENTALLY

Changing 1% daily seems small, but it exponentially rises fast through compounding results—the same happens when we regress.

We tend to fail with changing habits and reaching goals because we aim high too soon. Instead of planning big from the starting line, start small and gradually improve. If you do this, you will start seeing how much easier it is to achieve your habits as your effort to achieve an incremental goal is not stressful.

START BREAKING LARGER HABITS INTO SMALLER ONES

Once you start incrementally increasing your habit building, you start seeing how far you’ve come within 2-4 months. It is still important to keep your goals of new habits realistic and obtainable so you can keep the momentum going.

Some ways to do this is to break up a 30-minute cardio session into two separate sessions—two 15 minutes sessions. If you were thinking of reading 60 pages of a book a day, read 20 pages at three separate sessions.

Continue to keep breaking up larger tasks into simple chunks.

RETURN BACK ON TRACK FROM MISHAPS

We all make mistakes, errors, and get thrown off course due to our human condition of being flawed. The difference between those who succeed and those who don’t is the resilience to get back to the habit flow quickly.

Abandon your all-or-nothing mentality trying to be perfect. If you miss executing your habit once, it has no measurable impact on your long-term progress.

We should be realistic in our approach to this habit change by accepting the fact that we will fail. Planning for failure will prepare us for what to do when it comes. We can prepare by answering the questions: “What are circumstances that will prevent me from achieving this daily habit?”, “If this happens, what can I do to work through it rather than around it?”, and “How can I return to this habit fast and efficiently?”

Being consistent, resilient, and focused are necessary for this habit change.

PATIENCE BY FOCUSING ON THE LONG-TERM GOAL

Patience is a skill we have to be mindful of. If we never learned to be patient, this may be a challenging feat. Having this skill and characteristic is something we must also learn for a successful habit change. We are told to be patient with other people, but we must first learn to be patient with ourselves when it comes to personal progress and change.

We all want to improve our health, wealth, and happiness, but many of us want it without hard work and time. We cannot run a marathon without slowly and incrementally adding distance daily, weekly, or monthly. We cannot grow a million-dollar business without scaling and failing. Patience is important, but adding resilience is up there with it.

KEY TAKEAWAY

When you think about creating new habits, it should feel easy in the beginning. When you start increasing the change, it will feel more challenging along the way, but following the previous steps is how to work through it.

We must first be aware of our toxic and unhealthy behavior and start planning how we want to change it.

We all have the ability to change, but choosing to be patient and resilient through hardship is the real work.

-Lloyd Sarte