The 4 ultimate rules that will help you build the best habits
40 to 50% of our actions on any given day are done out of habit. That explains why our habits are a powerful tool to make the best out of our life.
“There are no good habits or bad habits. There are only effective habits.”
James Clear
They matter because they help you become the kind of person you want to become.
Sometimes your current habits are not the best way to solve the problems you face. They are only the methods you learned to use. Once you associate a ‘solution’ – habits – with the problem you need to solve, you keep coming back to it automatically.
The good news is that you can choose to change them.
As mentioned above, habits are about becoming, so the first way to put them on check is to review which of your current ones will help you become who you want to become.
That is powerful as they will allow you to become the upgraded version of yourself or vision you have been dreaming of.
To achieve that by building good habits you can follow the ‘Laws of behaviour change’:
1. Make your habits obvious:
One of the ways to eliminate a bad habit is to reduce your exposure to it.
“Self control is a short-term strategy, not a long term one.”
You can’t live and be happy whilst you are unsatisfied and forcing ourselves. Whoever says the opposite is wrong.
One of the first things you can do is to review if your current habits support you in getting where you want to be.
We are not always aware of our habits, or the cues that activate them.
Here 2 ways to review if your current habits are good:
a) Make a list of all your habits in a day. Then review them as positive, neutral or negative.
b) You can also do ask yourself if ‘X behaviour helps you become the type of person you wish to be’.
Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identity?
2. Make the desired habits attractive:
Habits are attractive when associated with positive feelings and unattractive when we associate them with negative ones.
We are social animals, so behaviours will be attractive when they help us fit: to the close, the many or the powerful. Nothing sustains motivation better than ‘belonging to the tribe’.
3. Make the habit an easy thing:
– Many of the actions we take each day are shaped not by purposeful drive and choice but by the most obvious option – your environment.
The good part is that you can pre set your environment to support the habits you want to pursue. A simple example would be leaving your sport clothes or mat ready if you want to go running or do yoga first thing the next day.
– Planning, writing down your habits with a realistic time-frame or recording them somewhere will also support you sticking to them.
“People who have a specific plan for when and where they will implement a new habit are more likely to follow through.”
4. Make them satisfying:
“Habits that are not satisfying won’t last”
Our brains is designed in a way that values quick rewards over long term ones. And the problem is that usually good habits go in hand with long term not short term results. At the moment of the decision, a bad habit might appear more appealing.
– Create a motivation ritual by doing something you enjoy immediately before a difficult habit.
By doing that, your brain will associate what comes next – a quick feeling of reward – together with the new habit you are wanting to put in place.
For example: If it’s tiredness or motivation, as yourself think:
How you will remind yourself of the benefits of doing that?
The more you connect with the feeling that the results will give you, the stronger the motivation will be.
Each habit you build will not only get you results, but also teach you something far more important: to trust yourself.
Once you are in control of your routines or habits, you will start to believe that you can accomplish things.
Because once you have evidence on that, the story you tell yourself will change.
However, building new habits and routines requires time and accountability. Your beliefs or self concept may need revision or work.
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