Habits are fundamental to a person’s personality and form an integral part of life. Our success and downfall both depend on them. Good habits can make us grow in life, whereas, bad habits can ruin it. Hence, it is one of the important lifestyle changes that one requires to succeed in life.
Forming good habits is crucial for personality development, attaining goals and achieving success in life. Whether you want to study, train yourself or eat healthier, the process of habit formation remains important.
In this blog, we will go through several ways to form good habits and help you with ideas and ways to stick with them.
Understanding Habit Formation
Before we learn how to form good habits, it is important to understand the “why” and “what” behind it.
The Habit Loop: The concept of habit loop was popularised by Charles Duhigg in his book “The Power of Habit”. According to him, there are three components of the habit loop and these are:
Cue: This is a trigger that is responsible for the initiation of a habit. A cue can be a location, an emotional phase, a person, or a day.
Routine: The routine is your daily action to convert into a habit. This is the habit that you want to form.
Reward: The reward is the outcome or the thing that you gain from completing a particular habit. It is a positive result that strengthens your behaviour and makes you want to repeat it.
Suggested reading- 10 Healthy Habits to Improve Your Daily Routine
The Science Behind Habits
Neuroscience has proved that habits are encoded in the brain. When a person performs a certain habit over and over, the brain forms neural pathways making the behaviour automatic. These pathways are like a trail that makes it easier for the brain to follow the same pattern.
Steps to Form Good Habits
Now that we understand the fundamentals of habit formation, let’s move forward and learn the steps to form good habits.
Identify Your “Why”
It is very important to know why you want to make any change in your routine before you start forming habits. When you get the answer to your “why” you tend to understand your driving force or the motivation behind it.
When you don’t have any reason for forming a new habit, you are more likely to give up when things become tough for you. Question yourself about the purpose of forming that particular habit, and ask yourself how this habit will help you achieve something in your life. When you get answers to these questions, you become more confident and, hence, you work hard to achieve your goal.
Start Small
Setting overly ambitious goals is one of the biggest mistakes that people make while forming new habits. Instead of gaining something in a very short amount of time, start with small goals and achieve them.
Moreover, you should move step by step and divide your tasks into smaller fragments so that they become easier to achieve. For example, if you want to form a habit of regular running, start by running 100 meters or 200 meters at first, and gradually increase the duration. In this way, you can achieve your target and form a habit of running.
Choose a Specific Cue
Cue is very crucial as it helps you to establish a habit, therefore, you need to have a specific cue that triggers a particular behaviour. For instance, if you want to eat healthy, you might choose to think about the negative sides of eating junk food. Having a cue helps you to remember and follow through.
Create a Plan
Planning is significant if you want to form a habit. Create a schedule to follow; having a plan helps you keep track of your progress and remain organised. Furthermore, it helps you counter unprecedented situations, making it easier for you to follow through.
Stay Consistent
Consistency is key to habit formation. It will help you a lot if you perform a task at the same time every day. The repetition of habit helps you reinforce it and strengthen your behaviour.
Use Positive Reinforcement
Do you remember the reward component of the habit loop? In that case, it is mentioned that you should celebrate your successes even if they are trivial. Review your progress, and reward yourself so that you remain motivated.
For instance, if you are establishing a money-saving habit, treat yourself by rewarding yourself with some small gift after achieving a certain milestone.
Accountability and Support
Your friends and family are the source of support and encouragement for you. Sharing your journey with them can provide you with motivation and accountability. You can also consider joining support groups or relevant communities to connect with others and share your story.
Learn from Setbacks
When you begin your habit-forming journey, you don’t need to taste the success, every time. Sometimes, you suffer setbacks and it is normal. When you encounter such challenges, you must learn from them.
Instead of getting discouraged, view them as opportunities to learn something. Analyze your approach and make the necessary changes in your plan, if required.
Measure Your Progress
Keeping track of your progress helps you complete your tasks on time. You can do this by adding reminders, with the help of habit-tracking apps or maintaining a daily diary. These things can help you track your progress and see how far you are from your target. Accordingly, you can increase or decrease your pace towards your goal.
Habit Stacking
“Habit stacking” is one of the best ways to help you in habit formation. It involves linking your already existing habit with your new habit. For instance, if you want to establish a reading habit, you can stack it on your existing habit of daily travel. You can read a book while travelling to your office, home, school or college.
Be Patient
It takes time to form good habits. According to research, it can take between 21 to 66 days to form a new habit, depending on the nature of the habit and the individual. So, instead of rushing, be patient and persistent. It will take time but show you results.
Conclusion
Forming good habits is quite necessary if one wants to improve himself and achieve something. It requires perseverance, dedication, patience and hard work. Furthermore, it would help if you had an idea about the “habit loop”, once you understand this you come steps closer to forming a new habit. So, instead of procrastinating and thinking about the outcomes, it is time to begin your habit-forming journey from today. Stay positive, take small steps, and move closer to your target.
Shreya Bhatt