You’re ready for change! You’ve set goals in the past that have been unable to be reached either by failure to start or failure to keep going, but NOW is the time for change to happen! How? Habits!
I LOVE using habits to create change. If you’re familiar with very many other posts I’ve written, you’ll know that habits are my absolute favorite for a variety of reasons.
We all have habits we currently use in our everyday lives, some are bad and some are good. We all are capable of creating new habits to create change as well! Crazy, right?!
There are four items to consider (concerning habits) when you want to create change, and they are:
- Decide what habits you want to stop
- Decide what habits you want to start
- Commit to yourself to do these and write them down to help remind you
- Visualize the “new you” when it gets hard
1. Decide what habits you want to stop
Take a moment to evaluate your day-to-day life. You may have to think hard because habits are something we do without thinking, we just do them! What is something you do that keeps you from reaching your goals? This could be turning on the TV right when you get home from work instead of hitting the gym or returning a phone call/text your friend or family member has been waiting on. It could be waking up immediately to scrolling on your phone instead of saying a prayer or meditating. What’s holding you back from moving forward?
2. Decide what habits you want to start
Now that you’ve identified the habits you need to end, what are the habits you want to start? It’s possible to completely stop a habit and free up the time it would have taken, but much easier to instead replace it with a good habit (especially if that new habit brings you closer to one of your goals). What will you do instead of turning on the TV when you get home from work? Will you take your dog out for a walk? Grab groceries on your way home and immediately start preparing a healthy dinner? If you have goals to improve physically, these could be great new habits to start!
3. Commit to yourself to do these and write them down to help remind you
You have a plan to start implementing these healthy habits and that’s great! However, it’s so easy to fall back into the comfort of what we’re used to and even easier to forget to even do these things if they aren’t yet habits. How will you remind yourself to walk your dog when you get home from work? Putting the leash on top of the remote so you have that trigger to remind you is a great way! Or maybe you do better when writing notes or setting alarms to go off on your phone. Whatever works for you, make sure you commit to yourself to this change by reminding yourself until they have become your new habits.
4. Visualize the “new you” when it gets hard
There is so much power in visualization! When it gets hard to implement change, it’s important to remind yourself who you want to be. Using the example we’ve stuck with so far, when you get home after a long day of work and just want to unwind and relax and that couch is looking really comfortable, ask yourself what the future you would do. Do you want the future you to be someone who gives into temptation and forgets all the hard work he/she has done for an hour of TV over an hour of spending time outside?
Trying to overcome my fear of germs, visualization has helped me the most of anything. When something enters my house unsterilized and I want to grab my disinfectant spray and go to town before it has the chance to touch anything, I remind myself that that’s not what I want my future self to do. Depending how dirty the item actually is, my future self handles it calmly, and quite frankly, will welcome some germs in as some germs are okay and are actually good to be around. This helps me to calm down and proceed to act as the person I want to be.
Trust me, if I can do it, you can totally do it!
What habit are you going to start working on this week?
Share Your Thoughts