Two Simple Ways to Form New Habits Without Really Trying

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Editor s note: This is a guest post by Haider Al-Mosawi from Personal Growth Map.
Forming new habits is often seen as a huge commitment that only a few fortunate
souls blessed with a naturally high dosage of willpower can ever accomplish. The
rest of us can only content ourselves with silly attempts to change, only to de
fault to our old ways.
But the problem isn t really with forming new habits. It s our approach to forming n
ew habits that makes life difficult.
To make your life much easier, here are two simple ways you can use to form new
habits that will help you get great results without really trying!
Half Habits
The most common approach to forming a new habit is to attempt to create it with
a single leap from your old way to the new way, without any transition period. Y
ou smoke and you want to quit smoking. You drink coffee and you want to cut it o
ut of your diet. You don t exercise and want to join the gym to exercise on a dail
y basis. To achieve your goals, you rely on commitment and willpower.
But as you have experienced time and time again, your willpower will dwindle a f
ew weeks down the road (if you survive that long) and drag your commitment down
with it, leaving you with your old ways if not worse!
That s because to go from one way to a totally new way is unnatural. It comes as a
shock to your mind, body and soul and they will fight fiercely to return to a w
ay that is familiar to them.
What s the solution, I hear you ask?
Well, that s a good question, and I m glad you asked it :)
A solution I would recommend would be to go for half habits.
What does that mean?
Rather than trying to commit FULLY to a new habit, you simply take a step in its
direction.
For example, instead of immediately joining a gym in order to become healthy, if
your body has almost forgotten what physical activity means, incorporate a mini-e
xercise routine at home. That way, you don t feel guilty that you re not going to th
e gym every day, and you re not taking something on that will be met with resistan
ce. It s a small adjustment that you won t have difficulty keeping up.
An advantage to half habits is that you accept that you need to go through a tra
nsition period from old habit to new habit. You accept this as something natural
and not a failing on your part.
Your focus then turns to the progress that you are making instead of the times y
ou fall off the wagon!
Oh great! I exercised four times this week! instead of OH MY GOD! I haven t exercised
for THREE days this week!
And with half habits, you can effectively take on a number of habits without fee
ling any pressure!
I managed to cut down on coffee and soft drinks, started blogging almost daily,
reduced the amount of food I eat, began waking up early in the morning and devel
oped a range of other mini-habits that have popped up here and there without me
making any serious attempt to form them. The last time I drank a soft drink I ac
tually felt disgusted because I didn t enjoy the taste (my preference is moving to
wards drinking water). I didn t force myself to stop drinking soft drinks. I simpl
y said to myself: I would like to start drinking more water and removing soft dr
inks from my diet. And I went in that direction with the acceptance that I might
be having a soft drink occasionally.
Another great advantage to half habits is that some habits help reinforce each o
ther!
Cutting down on coffee helps you get more quality sleep, which helps make it eas
ier to wake up early, which gives you more time to do quality work, etc.
You transition towards new habits without feeling burdened by unrealistic commit
ments and can enjoy making progress in your life.
And what s the other way you can form habits easily ?
Timeless Habits
One of the major obstacles we face in trying to adopt new habits into our lives
is simply that we don t have the time to do so!
If you want to start exercising, you need to fit exercise sessions into your sch
edule. But that involves some planning, and you might already have too many comm
itments that stop you from squeezing in exercise into your busy week.
But that doesn t mean you cannot develop new and positive habits!
Not having the time is no reason to remain stagnant. There are many small adjust
ments and changes we can do here and there that require no extra time whatsoever
!
Do you need any extra time to replace coffee with green tea, or soft drinks with
water?
Do you need any extra time to sprinkle your day with a few more smiles?
There are SO many ways we can move forward in life without needing to make any h
efty time commitments, and these changes will help us realize how easy it is to
form new habits and will also lead us to enjoy the many benefits these habits ca
n bring to our lives!
Give these two ways a try, and find out how easy it is to form new habits and mo
ve your life forward!
The Golden Nuggets From This Article
To make the application of the lessons in this post easier to apply, here s a summ
ary of the key points mentioned, split between Theory (the ideas you should bear
in mind) and Practice (what you need to do to make use of what you just read)
Theory
Forming new habits isn t hard, nor does it require a lot of willpower. The problem
is with our approach to habit-formation
There are two simple ways to habit-formation that makes it easy to accomplish: 1
) Half Habits 2) Timeless Habits
Half Habits: Rather than aim to form a new habit fully, aim to make progress in
the direction of the new habit. You will gradually re-adjust, and the approach i
s much more natural than expecting to form a new habit with a single leap
Timeless Habits: There are many, many habits we can develop that require absolut
ely no time commitment. Replacing coffee with green tea, or soft drinks with wat
er doesn t take any extra time to do but can bring about great benefits into our l
ives
Practice
Half Habits: For all the habits you intend on adopting, instead of focusing on t
he destination (forming the new habit fully), think of the next step you can tak
e in the direction of these habits and make a slight adjustment to adopting thes
e habits
Timeless Habits: Come up with ways you can make simple changes to what you eat,
how you behave, etc. that can bring about positive results in your life, without
needing to free up any time on your schedule to form these new habits
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How to Establish New Habits the No-Sweat Way
The chains of habit are generally too small to be felt until they are too strong
to be broken. - Samuel Johnson
Editor s note: This is a guest post from Mary Jaksch of Goodlife Zen.
Have you ever had problems establishing a new habit? Maybe I should ask, have yo
u ever not had problems establishing a new habit? Whether it s getting up early, g
oing for a daily run, losing weight, writing a journal let s face it: most attempt
s to establish a new habit end in a dismal flop.
In her book This year I will , Andy Ryan, an expert in collaborative thinking, spell
s out why change is difficult:
Whenever we initiate change, even a positive one, we activate fear in our emotio
nal brain .If the fear is big enough, the fight-or-flight response will go off and
we ll run from what we re trying to do.
That s exactly how it is for me. One part of me is gung-ho about making changes, a
nd the other part just turns tail and rushes off in the opposite direction!
Let s take a look at how we can affect change without giving ourselves a fright. O
r do we just have to accept that we are creatures of habit and nothing much will
ever change?
In a New York Times article based upon the research by Andy Ryan it says:
Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can inst
ead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the mor
e new things we try the more we step outside our comfort zone the more inherentl
y creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.
But don t bother trying to kill off old habits; once those ruts of procedure are w
orn into the hippocampus, they re there to stay. Instead, the new habits we delibe
rately ingrain into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old
roads.
How do we create pathways of change so gently that we don t take fright?
There is a very interesting Japanese philosophy called Kaizen which can help us
do just that. Kaizen focuses on continuous but small change.
In order to find out how Kaizen can help us to establish new habits, let s take a
look at change in terms of momentum. Just imagine for a moment that you are the
captain of an ocean liner. If you decided to change course 90 degrees, there wou
ld be two different ways to accomplish this. One way would be to stall the ship s
forward momentum and then take up a new course.
Big changes mean that momentum is lost.
The other way to change course would be to use the forward momentum and to incre
mentally change course until the full 90 degrees are accomplished.
If we change direction little by little, we can use momentum to affect change.
Andy Ryan says:
The small steps in Kaizen don t set off fight or flight, but rather keep us in the
thinking brain, where we have access to our creativity and playfulness.
With a strategy of continuous low-level change, we are able to sidestep the numb
er one barrier to change: fear.
Let s see how this would work in our daily life. Let s imagine that you want to get
up an hour earlier each morning in order to be more productive.
Strategy No. 1: You grit your teeth, set your clock an hour earlier, and struggl
e out of bed. This might work for a few days, or for longer if you re disciplined.
But chances are that you ll be back in your old groove as soon as you begin to fe
el tired and stressed.
Strategy No. 2: You use the Kaizen method and get up one minute earlier each day
. Two months later you would be getting out of bed one hour earlier without even
noticing the change!
You can see by this example what a powerful strategy for change Kaizen is.
The Kaizen method of continuous incremental improvements isn t just a personal phi
losophy. It was embraced by industry giants such as Toyota and has enabled them
to become world leaders in automotive innovation.
The word that leaps out at me when I read about the principles of Kaizen is conti
nuous . I don t know how it is for you, but in my life personal growth happens in bu
rsts with longish pauses in between.
This is rather like doing a massive run or a superhard yoga class one day and then
letting all exercise slip for the next days because your body feels sore. A few
days later you feel the need for a hefty dose of exercise again and that brings
you back to the massive run or the superhard yoga class. And so it goes on and
on
What if we we kept our exercise routine going each day and very gradually increa
sed the length or difficulty of training? What if we used this gentle but powerf
ul way to effect all change in our life?
What s your sense of how the Kaizen method would work for habits that you want to
establish?
Mary Jaksch is a Zen master, psychotherapist, and author. She s a Karate Black Bel
t, and loves dancing Argentine tango in skimpy dresses. Visit Mary s blog, Goodlif
e Zen.
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18 Tricks to Make New Habits Stick

Wouldn t it be nice to have everything run on autopilot? Chores, exercise, eating

healthy and getting your work done just happening automatically. Unless they man
age to invent robot servants, all your work isn t going to disappear overnight. Bu
t if you program behaviors as new habits you can take out the struggle.
With a small amount of initial discipline, you can create a new habit that requi
res little effort to maintain. Here are some tips for creating new habits and ma
king them stick:
1. Commit to Thirty Days Three to four weeks is all the time you need to make a
habit automatic. If you can make it through the initial conditioning phase, it b
ecomes much easier to sustain. A month is a good block of time to commit to a ch
ange since it easily fits in your calendar.
2. Make it Daily Consistency is critical if you want to make a habit stick. If y
ou want to start exercising, go to the gym every day for your first thirty days.
Going a couple times a week will make it harder to form the habit. Activities y
ou do once every few days are trickier to lock in as habits.
3. Start Simple Don t try to completely change your life in one day. It is easy to
get over-motivated and take on too much. If you wanted to study two hours a day
, first make the habit to go for thirty minutes and build on that.
4. Remind Yourself Around two weeks into your commitment it can be easy to forge
t. Place reminders to execute your habit each day or you might miss a few days.
If you miss time it defeats the purpose of setting a habit to begin with.
5. Stay Consistent The more consistent your habit the easier it will be to stick
. If you want to start exercising, try going at the same time, to the same place
for your thirty days. When cues like time of day, place and circumstances are t
he same in each case it is easier to stick.
6. Get a Buddy Find someone who will go along with you and keep you motivated if
you feel like quitting.
7. Form a Trigger A trigger is a ritual you use right before executing your habi
t. If you wanted to wake up earlier, this could mean waking up in exactly the sa
me way each morning. If you wanted to quit smoking you could practice snapping y
our fingers each time you felt the urge to pick up a cigarette.
8. Replace Lost Needs - If you are giving up something in your habit, make sure
you are adequately replacing any needs you ve lost. If watching television gave yo
u a way to relax, you could take up meditation or reading as a way to replace th
at same need.
9. Be Imperfect Don t expect all your attempts to change habits to be successful i
mmediately. It took me four independent tries before I started exercising regula
rly. Now I love it. Try your best, but expect a few bumps along the way.
10. Use But A prominent habit changing therapist once told me this great technique
for changing bad thought patterns. When you start to think negative thoughts, u
se the word but to interrupt it. I m no good at this, but, if I work at it I might ge
t better later.
11. Remove Temptation - Restructure your environment so it won t tempt you in the
first thirty days. Remove junk food from your house, cancel your cable subscript
ion, throw out the cigarettes so you won t need to struggle with willpower later.
12. Associate With Role Models - Spend more time with people who model the habit
s you want to mirror. A recent study found that having an obese friend indicated
you were more likely to become fat. You become what you spend time around.
13. Run it as an Experiment - Withhold judgment until after a month has past and
use it as an experiment in behavior. Experiments can t fail, they just have diffe
rent results so it will give you a different perspective on changing your habit.
14. Swish - A technique from NLP. Visualize yourself performing the bad habit. N
ext visualize yourself pushing aside the bad habit and performing an alternative
. Finally, end that sequence with an image of yourself in a highly positive stat
e. See yourself picking up the cigarette, see yourself putting it down and snapp
ing your fingers, finally visualize yourself running and breathing free. Do it a
few times until you automatically go through the pattern before executing the o
ld habit.
15. Write it Down A piece of paper with a resolution on it isn t that important. W
riting that resolution is. Writing makes your ideas more clear and focuses you o
n your end result.
16. Know the Benefits - Familiarize yourself with the benefits of making a chang
e. Get books that show the benefits of regular exercise. Notice any changes in e
nergy levels after you take on a new diet. Imagine getting better grades after i
mproving your study habits.
17. Know the Pain You should also be aware of the consequences. Exposing yoursel
f to realistic information about the downsides of not making a change will give
you added motivation.
18. Do it For Yourself - Don t worry about all the things you should have as habits.
Instead tool your habits towards your goals and the things that motivate you. W
eak guilt and empty resolutions aren t enough.
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Can You Become a Creature of New Habits?
Christophe Vorlet
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By JANET RAE-DUPREE
Published: May 4, 2008
HABITS are a funny thing. We reach for them mindlessly, setting our brains on au
to-pilot and relaxing into the unconscious comfort of familiar routine. Not choic
e, but habit rules the unreflecting herd, William Wordsworth said in the 19th cen
tury. In the ever-changing 21st century, even the word habit carries a negative co
nnotation.
So it seems antithetical to talk about habits in the same context as creativity
and innovation. But brain researchers have discovered that when we consciously d
evelop new habits, we create parallel synaptic paths, and even entirely new brai
n cells, that can jump our trains of thought onto new, innovative tracks.
Rather than dismissing ourselves as unchangeable creatures of habit, we can inst
ead direct our own change by consciously developing new habits. In fact, the mor
e new things we try the more we step outside our comfort zone the more inherentl
y creative we become, both in the workplace and in our personal lives.
But don t bother trying to kill off old habits; once those ruts of procedure are w
orn into the hippocampus, they re there to stay. Instead, the new habits we delibe
rately ingrain into ourselves create parallel pathways that can bypass those old
roads.
The first thing needed for innovation is a fascination with wonder, says Dawna Mar
kova, author of The Open Mind and an executive change consultant for Professional
Thinking Partners. But we are taught instead to decide, just as our president calls
himself the Decider. She adds, however, that to decide is to kill off all possibil
ities but one. A good innovational thinker is always exploring the many other po
ssibilities.
All of us work through problems in ways of which we re unaware, she says. Research
ers in the late 1960s discovered that humans are born with the capacity to appro
ach challenges in four primary ways: analytically, procedurally, relationally (o
r collaboratively) and innovatively. At puberty, however, the brain shuts down h
alf of that capacity, preserving only those modes of thought that have seemed mo
st valuable during the first decade or so of life.
The current emphasis on standardized testing highlights analysis and procedure,
meaning that few of us inherently use our innovative and collaborative modes of
thought. This breaks the major rule in the American belief system that anyone can
do anything, explains M. J. Ryan, author of the 2006 book This Year I Will... and
Ms. Markova s business partner. That s a lie that we have perpetuated, and it fosters
mediocrity. Knowing what you re good at and doing even more of it creates excelle
nce.
This is where developing new habits comes in. If you re an analytical or procedura
l thinker, you learn in different ways than someone who is inherently innovative
or collaborative. Figure out what has worked for you when you ve learned in the p
ast, and you can draw your own map for developing additional skills and behavior
s for the future.
I apprentice myself to someone when I want to learn something new or develop a ne
w habit, Ms. Ryan says. Other people read a book about it or take a course. If you
have a pathway to learning, use it because that s going to be easier than creatin
g an entirely new pathway in your brain.
Ms. Ryan and Ms. Markova have found what they call three zones of existence: com
fort, stretch and stress. Comfort is the realm of existing habit. Stress occurs
when a challenge is so far beyond current experience as to be overwhelming. It s t
hat stretch zone in the middle activities that feel a bit awkward and unfamiliar
where true change occurs.
Getting into the stretch zone is good for you, Ms. Ryan says in This Year I Will...
. It helps keep your brain healthy. It turns out that unless we continue to learn
new things, which challenges our brains to create new pathways, they literally
begin to atrophy, which may result in dementia, Alzheimer s and other brain diseas
es. Continuously stretching ourselves will even help us lose weight, according t
o one study. Researchers who asked folks to do something different every day lis
ten to a new radio station, for instance found that they lost and kept off weigh
t. No one is sure why, but scientists speculate that getting out of routines mak
es us more aware in general.
She recommends practicing a Japanese technique called kaizen, which calls for ti
ny, continuous improvements.
Whenever we initiate change, even a positive one, we activate fear in our emotion
al brain, Ms. Ryan notes in her book. If the fear is big enough, the fight-or-flig
ht response will go off and we ll run from what we re trying to do. The small steps
in kaizen don t set off fight or flight, but rather keep us in the thinking brain,
where we have access to our creativity and playfulness.
Simultaneously, take a look at how colleagues approach challenges, Ms. Markova s
uggests. We tend to believe that those who think the way we do are smarter than
those who don t. That can be fatal in business, particularly for executives who su
rround themselves with like-thinkers. If seniority and promotion are based on si
milarity to those at the top, chances are strong that the company lacks intellec
tual diversity.
Try lacing your hands together, Ms. Markova says. You habitually do it one way. Now
try doing it with the other thumb on top. Feels awkward, doesn t it? That s the val
uable moment we call confusion, when we fuse the old with the new.
AFTER the churn of confusion, she says, the brain begins organizing the new inpu
t, ultimately creating new synaptic connections if the process is repeated enoug
h.
But if, during creation of that new habit, the Great Decider steps in to protest a
gainst taking the unfamiliar path, you get convergence and we keep doing the same
thing over and over again, she says.
You cannot have innovation, she adds, unless you are willing and able to move throu
gh the unknown and go from curiosity to wonder.
Janet Rae-Dupree writes about science and emerging technology in Silicon Valley.
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top 10 ways to establish new habits without discipline

by mary jaksch
Incremental change is better than ambitious failure ~ Tony Schwartz
All of us fear change. There is a simple reason for this: change hurts.
In his article Understanding the Science of Change, Christopher Koch explains:
Change lights up an area of the brain, the prefrontal cortex, which is like RAM
memory in a PC Like RAM, the prefrontal cortex s capacity is finite-it can deal com
fortably with only a handful of concepts before bumping up against limits. That
bump generates a palpable sense of discomfort and produces fatigue and even ange
r. That s because the prefrontal cortex is tightly linked to the primitive emotion
al center of the brain, the amygdala, which controls our fight-or-flight respons
e.
Apparently, even when someone gives us well-meaning advice, the prefrontal corte
x soon threatens to become overloaded and exhausted. That s one of the reasons we
tend to get defensive.
the emotional cost of change.
All of us are resistant to change. Take a look at the following seven emotional
responses that hinder change and see which ones you are prone to. (I ve loosely fo
llowed a list compiled by psychologist A. J. Schuler)
The risk of change seems greater than the risk of standing still.
We feel connected to other people who identify with the old way.
We lack of role models for the new activity
We fear failure
We feel overwhelmed
Our self-image is threatened
We are reluctant to learn something new
why discipline doesn t work.
Discipline takes a lot of energy, because we try to bend our will away from what
might be most pleasurable in the moment and towards what may be useful in the l
ong run.
Author Tony Schwartz says :
A growing body of scientific literature suggests that people have very limited s
tores of will and discipline. Most of our energy is consumed by our existing hab
its, and by our reactions to demands in the environment. If we want to introduce
new behaviors in our lives, we can t count on will and discipline to make them ha
ppen.
use positive rituals.
A great way to start and maintain new habits is through using positive rituals.
Personally, I ve come through three extensive trainings: professional music, Zen,
and karate. As a musician, I had to practice at least three hours a day. At time
s I was tired or felt no motivation. But I had no choice: in order to perform, I
had to practice.
I would drag myself to the flute and would then follow the established ritual, s
tep by step: put the flute together, play tone studies, scales, technical exerci
ses, then studies, and finally practice my performance pieces. This elaborate ri
tual led me right through my practice routine, like someone taking me by the han
d. And as I followed the ritual, I would find motivation and joy on the way.
In an interesting article in the Harvard Business Review, called Manage Your En
ergy, not Your Time , Tony Schwartz explains that positive rituals are behaviors t
hat are intentionally practiced and precisely scheduled, with the goal of making
them unconscious and automatic as quickly as possible.
Together with Tony Schwartz, Jim Loehr wrote an inspiring and life-changing book
: The Power of Full Engagement. In it they suggest using positive rituals inste
ad of discipline in order to change habits.
If we look at professions that demand peak performance, such as surgical teams,
pilots, athletes, musicians and others, what we can observe is that they all use
positive ritual to build focus and maintain safety. They don t leave it to chance
, conscious willpower, or discipline to come up with the right action.
Here then are practical ways to establish new habits without discipline:
ten tips to change a habit by using positive rituals
1. Identify the value of the habit you want to establish.
To be truly effective, our goals must be aligned with our values. It s not enough
for someone else to say it s a good thing to do. We ourselves must deem the goal w
orthy of sustained action.
2. Make your goal tangible
Let me give you an example: I m establishing a daily physical workout at the momen
t. I ve set myself a very simple goal. I want to fit into a slinky tango dress aft
er four weeks of fitness training. I ve taken a depressing before shot that shows al
l the bulges in the wrong places, and will take another one at the end, hopefull
y showing a toned body. Fitting into a particular dress is a tangible goal. It w
orks much better than saying something like: I want to lose 3 kilos and have a re
sting pulse of 60 after four weeks of exercise . Think of how you could make your
particular goal more tangible.
3. Give yourself a clear time-frame
It s easier to establish a habit if you give yourself a time-frame. An example wou
ld be, I want to establish a daily meditation practice in the next 21 days. When s
etting a time-frame, keep in mind that new habits take at least three weeks to e
stablish
4. Design and establish a positive ritual
Identify a flow of events that lead you to the action you want to establish as a
habit. In his book The Power of Less, Leo Babauta talks of triggers . This is a si
milar idea. Establish a routine of events that lead, step by step, to the start
of the action that is to become a habit.
5. Use your senses to make the ritual rich
Our senses are willing helpers that help us to make ritual meaningful.
Let s take meditation as an example. The steps or early morning meditation could b
e as follows:
- get out of bed and go to the bathroom
- put on comfortable meditation clothes
- put on some meditative music
- make yourself your favourite tea in a little bowl
- take your cup of tea to your meditation cushion
- light a candle
- turn off the music to enter silence
- sit down in meditation posture and drink your tea feel the heat of the bowl
in your hands, smell the tea.
- when you have finished the tea, place the cup by your side
- start to meditate
In this example, I ve used just about all the senses to establish a rich ritual. I m
sure you can imagine that you would be settled and disposed to meditate by the
end of this ritual.
6. Shout it from the roof top
Voicing our ideas creates activity and connectivity in the brain and creates a s
ense of ownership. It makes the habit yours . Each time you explain why the new ha
bit is important, you are convincing yourself and adding fuel to your motivation
7. Feed you habit by reading
The more we know about our growing habit, the stronger it gets. If you are start
ing to exercise, reading about the experiences of others can inspire you. It s par
ticularly useful to read about your new habit before you go to sleep. In that wa
y you prepare yourself for your next day s session.
8. Find buddies
Join with others who also want to change. If you ve ever done physical training in
a group you ll know that we can achieve much more if there are others beside us.
If we work with buddies , we utilize the synergy of all pouring energy into the sam
e change.
9. Report on your progress daily
This is an important piece of advice from Leo Babauta s book. The act of reporting
makes us accountable. And that is a great motivator. If you have found a buddy
or have established a team, suggest that you report to each other.
10. Write a Habit Journal
This is where you document your new habit. Write down how you feel with all the
highs and lows. And also collect stats that pertain to your new habit.
Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going. ~Jim Ryun
These ten tips work for me, and I m confident that they ll work for you too.

There is one other thing that s very important: whenever you work on your new habi
t, be fully engaged. In other words, you need to align all your energy: mental,
physical, emotional, and spiritual. The way to do that is to focus your whole be
ing on your action.
Maybe you have some more tips on how to establish a habit without trying to forc
e yourself through discipline. Or maybe you think discipline is absolutely neces
sary?
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Keep Going: How to Create and Maintain New Habits
By Celine Roque Apr. 24, 2010, 9:53am PDT 4 Comments
Web workers are creatures of habit. Those of us who are lucky enough to control
all aspects of our work schedule, location, process, and output depend on such h
abits. We may schedule work hours for peak productivity, batch process our email
, and even find a way to do household chores in between. But most of us also hav
e destructive habits. These may include digital fiddling, spending too much time
on social media, and working such long hours that our health pays the price.
How, then, do we then create and maintain our good habits while avoiding the bad
ones?
1. KNOW YOUR MOTIVATIONS WELL
The first step to changing one s habits is to understand why you re doing it. Since
you ll be going against your default behavior, you ll need extra motivation to make
the change.
Recent research shows that when we go against the default choice, the part of th
e brain involved in decision-making (the prefrontal cortex) and the part that s si
gnificant for motivation (subthalamic nucleus) showed increased activity. Accord
ing to a post on Psychology Today, These brain analyses suggest that going agains
t the default in difficult decisions requires some kind of extra motivation or c
onfidence.
It might also help to dig deeper into your motivations. It s probably not enough t
o say something like, I need to stop compulsive email checking so I can focus on
work. Know why you need to focus. Is it to improve your work output? And why woul
d you want to do that? Are you hoping for a promotion?
By getting to the root of why you want to create a new habit, you can see how it
is related to the goals you want to accomplish. Once you make the connections o
r, even better, get them on paper, you ll have something positive in mind during t
he most challenging days of habit formation.
2. START SMALL
How much self control do you have? That s a tricky but necessary question. After a
ll, your sense of control will allow you to negotiate how you ll form your new hab
it how much time you ll spend, how often you ll do it, etc. Then again, estimating c
ontrol is tricky since we all suffer from restraint bias our tendency to overest
imate self-control. The more self-control you think you have, the more you expos
e yourself to temptations that will allow you to break it.
If your bad habit is impulse-based, such as digital fiddling or compulsive email
checking, the more you have to be aware of your own restraint bias. The way out
of this seems to be to underestimate your own self-control and start with baby
steps.
For example, instead of promising yourself to avoid Facebook or video games unti
l the end of your workday, why not set a smaller goal? Aim to completely focus o
n your work for 15 minutes. Then reward yourself with a short break and start an
other 15-minute set of focused work. Keep going until you ve reached the bigger go
al of separating work and leisure.
By starting with easier goals, the limitations we impose on ourselves will feel
less threatening. This prevents us from falling off the wagon and undoing any pr
ogress we ve made.
3. DO IT DAILY
When habit formation is discussed, the 21-Day Rule is often brought up, which says
that you need to be able to do something daily for at least 21 days before it b
ecomes a habit. That sounds easy, right?
Sorry to disappoint you, but the real number varies. Researchers from University
College London found that the number lies between 18 to 254 days, with 66 days
being the average (via PsyBlog). Though you have to work on the habit daily, it s
not worth it to worry about skipping a day or two as long as you get back on tra
ck. The goal here is to get to the point where a task or process feels automated
you no longer feel forced to exercise before your workday, wake up earlier, or
work standing up. It just becomes part of you.
4. USE CUES TO YOUR ADVANTAGE
Even with your initial hard work, it s easy to fall back on bad habits when someth
ing triggers them. Once that happens, you may have to start from scratch. Accord
ing to research from MIT, some cues can be used to undermine newer habits in fav
or of older ones. Lead researcher Ann Graybiel says, This situation is familiar t
o anyone who is trying to lose weight or to control a well ingrained habit. Just
the sight of a piece of chocolate cake can reset all those good intentions. For
us web workers, this may mean disconnecting the Internet for a while to avoid di
gital fiddling, or hiding your laptop in a cabinet after working.
This idea is also applicable to creating new habits. You can use cues such as mu
sic, a closed door, or specific clothes to signal that it s the start of your work
day. Other cues can be in the form of a reward after successfully completing a t
ask.
5. TRACK YOUR PROGRESS
You re likely to stay motivated when you see how far you ve gone. Coupled with the m
otivations you ve established in the first step, you ll feel even more encouraged to
keep going because you can see how your effort is paying off. After that, your
bad habits, or even the simple laziness of maintaining the status quo, won t seem
attractive anymore.
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Research shows that it takes 21 days to develop a habit. That's 21 days of going
to the gym every day or exercising in some way every day, 21 days to meditation
, 21 days to eat healthily, 21 days doing, 21 days of anything. When you want to
start a habit, don't tell yourself you are doing it for life, tell yourself (yo
ur conscious brain) that you are going to try it for 21 days. For example if you
want to start the habit of meditating tell your conscious self that you are try
ing it for 21 days. Now, when you have completed this for 21 days your conscious
mind has the choice of stopping it or carrying on, or so it thinks. Your neural
pathways have formed already and you will more than likely continue with your n
ew habit, you will have seen the benefits along the way your unconscious will wa
nt to continue if it has been beneficial.
This can also work when trying to break a habit, however research has shown that
the neural pathways to any habit could be lifelong and a cue or a trigger can c
ause us to start back up an old habit, like smoking.
This is not a bad thing; we just have to be aware of our thoughts when we have g
iven up a habit such as smoking.
When starting or breaking any habit we tend to tell our conscious mind we are go
ing to change and it's for life. Your conscious mind will just say is that right
? I'm in charge here, I'll decide' so there will be a battle between your two si
des of your conscious mind.
If you tell your mind you want to try something for 21 days it won't be so unwil
ling to co-operate. This might sound a little strange when I say talking to your
conscious' as it is your conscious talking to your conscious. We all know we ha
ve conversations with ourselves, should I go to the pub should I not, should I g
o to the gym should I not. There are a hundred conversations we have with oursel
ves everyday.
When we want to start something or give up something, smoking for example, you m
ight normally say to yourself right that's it I'm giving up for good'. Immediate
ly your brain kicks in and says no smoking for life, and then it starts to think
of all the situations it likes a good cigarette in; first thing in the morning
with a cup of coffee, going out for a drink at night, at work when you're a bit
stressed, just after sex etc. Your brain thinks 'lack of' instead of the benefit
s of. It can't really think as clearly about the benefits because it hasn't yet
had the benefits of giving up smoking but it knows the supposed pleasures that s
moking brings.
So what habits can we start for 21 days?
I have made a list for myself that I am in the middle of doing;
Give up sweets for 21 days
Meditate for 21 days
Write in the blog every day for 21 days
Get up before 6am every day (I've actually made this a habit now)
Drink a vegetable juice for 21 days
This is just a small list of the things I am doing. Feel free to share you 21 da
y new habits.
Change your thoughts and you will change your life.
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10 Tips to Start a New Habit
Note: This guest post is by Scott Young.
Changing a habit doesn t require willpower. It requires strategy. Here s ten tips to
improve your tactics to make that resolution last:
Commit for Thirty Days Stick to a change for thirty days. They require 95% of th
e effort, so place your focus where it counts the first month.
Write it Down Winston Churchill once said, Plans are useless. Planning is invalua
ble. The same is true if you want to make a change. Planning out what you want to
do on paper can improve your odds of success.
Keep it Consistent - If you want to start exercising, running one day, biking an
other and dancing the next may be interesting, but it will be harder to make aut
omatic. For the first month, make your new habit consistent to prevent slippage.
Make it Daily What s easier writing three blog entries a week or seven? Surprising
ly, it is easier to adjust to doing it daily, then just a few times per week. I
suggest keeping any habit daily for the first thirty days so it will stick bette
r.
Know the Benefits - If you want a change to be permanent, a little motivation wo
n t cut it. Engross yourself in the benefits of your new habit. On a diet? Read th
e benefits of a healthy lifestyle and feel the difference eating well makes in y
our life. Budgeting? Research the impact it will have on your financial future,
until you can feel the freedom it will buy you later in life.
Plan Ahead Look for times that might upset your conditioning phase. This can be
vacations, changes in your schedule or work events. The best way to keep a party
from ruining your diet or a vacation from stopping your budget is to prepare in
advance.
Make a Ritual - Before you start your habit, it can be helpful to have a ritual.
If you want to wake up earlier each day, practice the same motion of turning of
f your alarm clock and stretching so it becomes your automatic response to the a
larm.
Conserve Needs Some habits aren t stable. Notice when a new habit change leaves yo
u with unmet needs. This could be eliminating web surfing and losing a form of r
est or cutting television and losing entertainment. Replace the lost needs to ke
ep you afloat.
Reward Yourself - Give yourself a reward after you finish your habit. This will
reinforce the positive behavior and make the habit stronger.
Use But A technique I learned from a prominent habit changing therapist is the but t
echnique to condition new alternatives for thought habits. As soon as you start
thinking negative thoughts, insert the word but and affirm something positive. i.e
. I m don t understand this, but, I m a quick learner so I just need to find my own met
hod.
Scott Young has changed many habits including becoming a vegetarian, exercising
daily, writing daily for his blog and many others. You can get more tips for suc
cess in making new habits in his new book: How to Change a Habit.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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Installing a new habit and breaking an old one

by Dr Stephanie A. Burns
Introduction
As part of the original Goal Achiever's Program (and now the Labyrinth online co
urse) I had been teaching the students how to install new useful habits and to b
reak existing useless or undesired habits.

In the context of the goal achievement having strategies for this type of learni
ng is useful because some goal activities are suited better to being a habit tha
n to being an activity which requires active motivation.
In this context the students decided what activities they wanted to become part
of their life for a long period of time, or for which they would need to do with
high frequency. Who wants to have to motivate themselves each time they need to
drink water, or take a walk, or stretch, or write another piece of the book? Th
ese repetitive long-term activities are less likely to be avoided, forgotten or
abandon if they become habits.
Making an action a habit requires very little knowledge of the cognitive activit
y of motivation I discuss in the other articles on the topics of achievement and
motivation, but having those at the ready can add an additional layer of suppor
t for habit building.
What is a habit?
Habits are those things that you do without thinking - things like:
setting the alarm
cleaning your teeth
doing the laundry
feeding the dog

What should be a habit?

Only those activities that you either want to do for an extended period of time,
like many months or years, or activities you want to do frequently - say one or
more times a day even if for only a few weeks.

Why would we want something to be a habit?

The most significant consequence of NOT making something a habit is that these a
ctivities would stand a good chance of not getting done, either because we forgo
t about it or because, having remembered, we lack the ability to motivate oursel
ves at the time of the remembering to take the action.
It takes energy to remember and then motivate a new action. Habituated actions a
re far less energy consuming.
Think of the benefit, if in addition to having habits for the mundane chores in
life, you also had a habit of getting up a few minutes earlier in the morning. P
erhaps a habit of eating a proper breakfast, taking the stairs instead of the el
evator, saving a little money every week, paying your bills on time, drinking wa
ter throughout the day, staying in touch with friends, exercising, stretching, r
eading a little everyday, relaxing, writing in a journal.
Imagine you actually did these activities without thinking about it or without t
he hemming and hawing and mucking about in your mind that goes on when trying to
decide to initiate an action.

The core strategies for building new habits.

Unless you have observed your own behaviour while learning it is unlikely that y
ou have made explicit the wonderful capability you have for creating new habits.
Many people I meet do not know that learning like this is even an option. What l
ikely comes to mind when the subject of habits is presented is of all the bad ha
bits they have that they are behoved to break!
To create a new habit there a only a few steps and these are steps we all posses
s the firepower to do.
1. You have to decide on what you want to be a habit. It is important that you b
e as specific as possible. A habit of drinking more water is problematic whereas
a habit of drinking 6 glasses a day is easier to install.
2. You have to set up triggers to help you remember the action at the time you w
ant to do it.
It is hard to install a new habit if you keep ending up at the end of the day re
membering that you were meaning to take the stairs at work instead of the elevat
or.

During the time before the action becomes a habit (perhaps the first few weeks)
you will need to use external triggers or reminders. Make it easy to remember wh
at you are trying to do.
Alarms, notes, friends to call you, rubber bands on your wrist, padlocks or obst
acles.
Rituals support remembering - do it in the same place, same time, same surroundi
ngs if possible for the first few weeks.
3. Once you have remembered you have to be able to motivate yourself to act. Bef
ore we discuss how to do that we should discuss the issue of repetition.
Installing new behaviours of any type take repetition over time. How much repeti
tion and for how long depends on what it is you are trying to install.

I was very happy I had a good set of strategies for making new habits when Nugge
t turned up in my life!

One consideration is the size of the action. For simple habits of short duration
- getting up earlier, making lunch for your children the night before, doing a
load of laundry every morning, saving small change everyday, riding your bike to
work, writing in a journal - you would do the entire action. For activities of
longer duration you will need another step.
Let's say you want to go for a walk every morning for one hour. Great habit, but
hard to do because of the component of length of time needed. To install these
types of habits is to understand that the habit you need first is to get up and
get out the door. The thought of an hour walk can undermine your best efforts to
fight the avoidance strategies from kicking in. You can circumvent this by inst
alling the habit of getting up in the morning and heading out the door.
Keep the walk short in the beginning, say ten minutes. Do that everyday for a co
uple of weeks until that habit is firmly installed. Then expand to the hour of w
alking - that will be the easy part. Also, by doing this you add a wonderful nat
ural motivation component - that of anticipation. We are highly motivated to do
things we are denying ourselves. So, if you say ten minutes a day, don't do twen
ty minutes. You will bungle the motivation that comes with anticipation.

This goes for any habit that you are creating that is being built over time - li
ke doing 20 push-ups or a hundred sit-ups or saving money.
Start very small, get the habit of starting handled, then build. This also appli
es to habits that have multiple actions. Let's say you want to begin preparing f
ood at home, instead of always eating in coffee shops on the way to work or orde
ring in for dinner.
This is not just a single faceted action. We have to install habits for checking
what's in the fridge, stopping at the shops, getting from the lounge into the k
itchen, preparing the food, preparing for cooking, doing the cooking, setting th
e table, cleaning up.
Any one of these actions could keep you from succeeding in installing this large
habit!
Each new action requires motivation and there are a lot of opportunities to quit
before dinner is ever made. A second consideration is the number of repetitions
. An action you will take everyday or even many times a day will take only two t
o three weeks to install. An activity that you will only do once a week but have
 decided should be a habit because it is something you want to do for a long tim
e can take up to twelve weeks to install. For instance, taking the kids to the l
ibrary every Saturday or having one night a week without television may take awh
ile - why because it is easier to forget, there is less repetition and it is a l
arger activity that can more easily engage our natural avoidance strategies. But
that is not to say that it is not worth the effort to create these types of hab
its.
Installing a habit is not energy free. It costs you the commitment to the action
for the few weeks it takes. It is a 'whatever' it takes to not miss (of course,
if you do miss - don't beat yourself up, life is long and there is more than en
ough time to get it right. You learn from each attempt. Just make the next attem
pt now, not later).

Call on a friend.
Do whatever it takes!
Now, back to strategies for motivating yourself to take the action.
This is no hold barred. You may well need every trick at your disposal. Such as:

Asking a friend to come by every day to do it with you.

Promise yourself a reward for each action.
Find someone you would not want to disappoint and make a promise to them.
Think hard about how bad you will feel if you do not do it.
Remember why the habit is important - what is the long term benefit.

Notice every positive step and change, no matter how small!

Make it hard to not do - set up obstacles and barriers so it is almost impossibl

e to not do.
Block your on-going movement.
Or, make it easy to do - put it in your path.
Delay the decision to not act - tell yourself to just start and then decide if y
ou want to continue.
To break a habit make what you are doing very hard to do.
Remember to pat yourself on the back for every success in the right direction no
matter how small.
Notice and acknowledge what is working
Spend the time you beat yourself for not doing what you should be doing by doing
what you should be doing.
Look for the smallest of improvements in your actions.
One less is one less, one minute more is one minute more.
Celebrate all successful behaviours no matter how small the change.
It all is in the right direction and changing behaviour is hard.
Acknowledging what you have done
Get off the fear of looking silly. It is not useful and none of the people who c
are about how you look are going to be important to you in the future. Don't mak
e decisions that relate to getting what you want be dependent on the thoughts of
others.

DO WHATEVER IT TAKES TO DO THE TASK FOR THE FIRST FEW WEEKS.

This is NOT EASY, but the reward is worth it. In a few weeks you will be doing i
t WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT IT. IT IS JUST SOMETHING YOU DO LIKE FEEDING THE DOG.

Make the bad stuff hard to get to

and the good stuff easy!

It's easier to start your exercise if you sleep on the treadmill.

Putting a $2 coin in the bank everyday is an excellent new habit challenge!

If you truly want a high quality learning experience to bring these strategies i
nto practice in your life you can participate in the
Labyrinth online course.

You can participate from anywhere in the world.

Strategies in action - here is how it works
You want to start carrying a bit of cash and not using your credit card.
Make it hard to do. Freeze your credit card in a block of ice.
You want to walk or jog each morning to start your day, but by the time you get
up and move around you don't feel like it.
Make it easier to do. Sleep in your jogging clothes, socks included, shoes optio
nal.
You want to stop biting your nails, but don't remember that 'til you're doing it
.
Make it hard or uncomfortable to do. Coat your nails with bitters, put bandaids
over the ends, put a sugar free lollypop in your mouth.
You want the habit of waking up 20 minutes earlier but keep pushing the alarm sn
ooze.
Make it hard to stay in bed. Move the alarm, set the lights on a timer, set the
TV on a timer.
You want to learn to save money for a long term goal, but never get to the bank
and it always seems too small an amount so you spend it.
Get in the habit of putting a little bit first. Start by putting a 2 dollar coin
in a bucket in the kitchen.
You want to think before you grab something from the fridge.
Make it easy to remember and hard to do. Put a padlock on it - and give the key
to your spouse so you have to ask - you'll remember, and you will think!
You want to walk the stairs at work but keep taking the elevator.
Make it hard not to do. Tell everyone at work and ask them to say 'booooo' to yo
u if they see you in the lift. Don't worry they won't ever have to be embarrasse
d to say it, because you won't get in the lift if you did.
You want to fold the clothes, but they sit in the laundry out of sight until you
walk in there next time.
Make it easy to remember and hard to not do. Take the laundry and put it on the
dining table, the lounge, in the bathroom sink.
You want to stretch while watching TV but once you sit on the lounge you don't m
ove.
Make it easier to do. Move the lounge into another room and put a mat on the flo
or.
You want to move more, your annoyed at your inactivity.
Make it easier to do. Take your TV remote to work and leave it there.
You want to drink water through out the day but forget to go to the cooler or ca
n't be bothered.
Make it easier to remember and do. Get a jogger's water bottle and belt.
You want the habit of walking an hour everyday.
Create anticipation for the desired behaviour by denying the opportunity to do m
ore. Start small walks for 10 minutes everyday 'til it's a habit, then expand th
e time, slowly.
Take the challenge
I would like to challenge each and everyone of you to install a new habit. One t
hat may be useful, but more importantly to learn from the experience of using th
ese strategies. You might pick up on one of the examples above or choose somethi
ng unique to your own desires. I would like to encourage you to then initiate an
other action - write to me and tell me what you did.
In closing ...
This is a valuable tool for achieving some very important life goals, like maint
aining your health, your flexibility or your finances. Keep it simple for the fi
rst go. It is just to learn about the process of creating a habit. Once you know
how, then you can tackle bigger things.
I would like to suggest just a couple of key thoughts to take away.
The only way to fail to this is to fail to initiate the first action.
Acknowledging successes count. Admonishing yourself for failures is useless.
Never think you are bad, or weak, if this is hard. Behaviour is based on innate
tendencies and you are following well ingrained patterns in humans. It is just t
hat as a human you have options about your approaches and can choose useful ones
over useless ones.
Good luck, and I look forward to hearing your stories.
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15 Ways To Get a New Habit To Stick Forever
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about this blog.

Ed. note: It seems like a rite of passage to post about habit forming on a perso
nal growth blog. But the primary reason I m posting this is because I feel I have
something to add to the conversation, not just because I have Leo envy! Hopefu
lly you pickup a trick or two from this post.
Forming new habits is hard. But it s absolutely possible for everyone due to the
plasticity of the brain and the core of human nature. If we are what we repeate
dly do, then it serves to reason that our habits are somehow a part of us. What
we focus on from minute to minute and day to day has a large part to do with wh
o we are and more importantly who we want to be.
It s not uncommon to see people with ambitious goals and aspirations who haven t for
med any of the required habits to achieve them. For 23 hours and 59 minutes eac
h day they re mired in bad habits, struggling to understand why it is they just ca
n t get motivated or can t make progress. The 1 minute each day they spend thinking
about and focusing on their goals can t help overcome the inertia of their habits
.
Habits are the single most important ingredient to achieving real focus and real
growth.
Social psychologists have been studying the process of habit forming for quite s
ome time. In the late 1970s, researchers James Prochaska and Carlo DiClemente c
ame up with a model to help frame the various Stages of Change . While this model
was formed out of a desire to cure smoker s addiction, it s useful to help identify
which stage someone is in with respect to one or more of their habits, good or b
ad. People are often unwilling or resistant to change during early stages, but
eventually become more proactive and committed to forming or replacing habits.

Here are the 5 stages:

Precontemplation. In this stage, ignorance is bliss . There s no motivation to chan
ge and in many cases, there may not even be an awareness of a problem or opportu
nity. At this point, it s important to put off taking any major action until you
understand the benefits (or the risks) and are able to successfully evaluate you
r own behavior.
Contemplation. Sitting on the fence without motivation to consider change for the
next month. It s likely a someday task ; no commitment has been made. If you re in t
his stage, you recognize the need to change but may not understand all the pros/
cons of it.
Preparation. Testing the waters and are ready to take action within the next mont
h or so. Ready to take small initial steps towards change.
Action. Practicing the new habit or behavior for 3-6 months. To get to this po
int, real time and energy has been given to the process and you re in the thick of
it , although there s still the possibility of relapse if you stop paying attention.
Maintenance. Habits are ingrained. Usually takes a full 6 months to really sin
k in.
Wait a minute does it really take 6 months to get to the final maintenance phase?
Yes and no or maybe. It really depends on you and how quickly you re able to int
ernalize change. Everyone s different. And every habit is different. It s far eas
ier to add a simple habit like flossing before bed to your nightly routine than
it is to kick a 30 year smoking addiction (although this is totally conjecture I
floss but have never smoked!) The key with this is to make sure you don t have s
elf-limiting beliefs with respect to what it will take, but that you re realistic
with yourself at the same time. Focus on your habits day to day and don t worry a
bout how long it will take (what s the point?)
Now the Stages of Change model can be a great way to frame habit forming and give
you a mini-barometer to help indicate which stage you re currently in, but it does
n t really help you determine a next action. Once you re placed yourself into a sta
ge and are ready to take action, it s time to get to business.
Here are the 15 tips in no specific order:
Don t start today, give yourself time to plan first. The absolute worst day to st
art is today because you haven t prepared yourself mentally, physically, or emotio
nally yet. The second worst day to start is tomorrow. Give yourself enough upf
ront time to plan out your approach in detail before jumping in headfirst. You ve
waited this long, another few days won t hurt!
Give yourself a positive goal. Always frame your goal in a way that inspires yo
u and motivates you to greater heights. If your goal is to exercise everyday fi
rst thing in the morning, you could write Wake up energized and ready to exercise
for at least 30 minutes instead of Force myself out of bed to get to the gym .
Start small, focus on one at a time, and build on successes. Take on one habit
at a time and always start off small. If your goal is to lose 80 pounds, start
by focusing on your first 5 pounds and don t worry about the 7 other habits you re r
eady to change or adopt. What s important is that you get this one right first be
fore moving on. Spend the time to get it right.
Dream big but look to kaizen. Never limit the dream your habit change can bring
dream as big as you can, write it down, and go for it. But you should utilize
the kaizen principle of incremental progress. This is when you challenge yourse
lf more each day to strive for continuous improvement using smaller than normal in
crements.
Be OK with the awkward phase. Many new habits have some level of awkwardness in
volved. You don t know what to do or how to do it. Everyone goes through it, you r
e not special! Just move through the awkwardness knowing you ll come out OK on th
e other side.
Create systems to make yourself more efficient. This is critical. If you re figh
ting yourself every step of the way, forming a habit is going to be hard. You n
eed to grease the skids by creating systems to help you out. Example from a previ
ous post: get in the small habit of packing your gym bag the night before to kee
p you from having an excuse for the big habit (exercise).
Reframe your negative self-talk. Don t identify with negativity! Whenever you ha
ve a moment of weakness, think, Those thoughts aren t me, they re just passing throug
h. I don t actually believe that. There s more detail about this in my series on Fl
ow.
Allow for imperfection; realize that not everything will be perfect. Striving fo
r excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. (Harriet Bra
iker). There s never going to be a perfect time to start, and there s never going t
o be a perfect implementation. You need to take what you can get, and most of t
he time that s not perfection.
Compliment your lifestyle. Do you like to stay up late or wake up early? Chanc
es are it isn t both You need to understand if you re a morning lark or a night ow
l, and schedule your habit at the appropriate time for you. This isn t pseudo-sci
ence it s been shown that people can have strong tendencies, even though many peop
le don t. If you do, leverage it.
Be in it for the long-haul. Never start something with the expectation that it
will be short-lived. There s no way you can possibly motivate yourself knowing th
at something is so short-term as to not be a real life change. Do it for you, a
nd do it for life, even if it involves some subtle changes to your approach.
Create contingency plans. Adversity will hit, it always does. If you ve prepared
for it ahead of time, you can be in a better position to continue making progre
ss over the long haul. At Harvard Business School they teach a thing called sce
nario planning this is a micro version of that for risk management. Always know
where your slip-ups may come from and you can have a plan to get through it.
Schedule priorities rather than prioritize schedules. In other words, make time
for it! If it s important to you, don t let your schedule get in the way. That s ju
st starting off on the wrong foot.
Tell other people and hold yourself accountable. It s always a smart thing to tel
l people what you re doing (other than your own ego) . Ask them to ask you how yo
u re doing with it from time to time knowing that you won t always be as motivated t
o change as you are at that moment. People who have a support system almost alw
ays find it easier to make things happen.
Start off doing it every day for 21 days. Studies have shown that lasting habit
change can occur in as little as 21 days (and in some cases fewer). In order t
o get the most of it, even if your habit isn t something you ultimately will do da
ily, start off doing it every single day for 21 days. It should be much easier
afterwards.
Write it down and track it. This accountability trick works wonders to keep peo
ple on track. When you know you re being watched, even if only by a piece of pape
r or an Excel spreadsheet, you may have a stronger sense of commitment. Speakin
g personally, if I can t track and measure it, it usually doesn t happen for me. Th
is is a real motivator.
These 15 tips will get you 95% of the way there, but there s still the possibility
of your mind sabotaging your progress in various ways. Here are a few things y
ou need to look out for throughout the process of forming a new habit and some w
ays you can mitigate their power. You can t let these things affect you!
Attributing Superpowers
When you attribute superpowers to someone else, you re taking power out of your ow
n hands and jumping to an unproven conclusion. This is common when it comes to
forming habits. Of course Sally is able to do it, she s always been the smartest p
erson around I could never be like her, she s different .
Generalizing
When you generalize, you re taking a single situation and applying it to all situa
tions. I wasn t able to do this yesterday, I guess I wasn t meant to do this after a
ll .
Black or White Thinking
This is thinking that there s no middle ground. You either succeed or fail, there s
nothing in the middle. There are only winners and losers there s no way to win if
you don t do it all right, all the time .
Excluding and Filtering
When you re excluding, your invalidating or disqualifying your progress. This is
often putting yourself down or not giving yourself the credit you re due. I may have
gotten this far, but 6 weeks is nothing it won t matter until I hit 6 months cons
istently! Filtering is when you only see negatives in a situation and no positiv
es: I didn t make it to the gym 6 times last month! Sure I went 24 times, but so w
hat?
Overreacting and Dwelling
You re overreacting when something small becomes something major. I can t make time
to write today because I have a board meeting. This is the worst possible thing
that could happen to me right now! It s horrible! You re dwelling when you do this
for an unhealthy period of time.
Hope this helps! Remember the ice cube tray analogy; if you already have someth
ing that works, that s great! If you use some of this information to fill in some
gaps, that s great too and if you re new to habit forming and want to get started,
hopefully this information is enough to get you going.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Picking Up a New Habit

BY LINDSEY KONKEL
August 26, 2010
FOOD, HEALTH & HOME FRONTLINES FALL 2010
COMMENTS (1)SHARE | |
DIVINE nature Sister Janet Weyker spends her days teaching outside. Photograph f
or OnEarth by James Schnepf
More from OnEarth
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Photo Gallery: PHOTOS: MakerFaire's Earth-Friendly Vibe
The Dominican sisters of Racine, Wisconsin, saw a need for better environmental
education. So they bought a farm and started their next mission -- in the garden
.
Morning sunlight spills across gardens of broccoli and tomatoes. Solar panels gl
isten on the roof. A rooster crows in the yard as Sister Janet Weyker unceremoni
ously flips a pitchfork-full of wet hay on top of a pile of alpaca poop. "It's i
nglorious work we do here," she says with a chuckle.
Like most days, this June morning started with chores. Sister Janet collected eg
gs from the henhouse; fed the dogs, cats, chickens, turkeys, and goats; and clea
ned out the alpaca corral -- all before about nine o'clock, when school, civic,
and church groups, as well as summer campers and families, began to arrive. Each
year, Sister Janet educates more than 5,000 people through ecology-based progra
ms at the Racine Eco Justice Center, a 15-acre working farm in southeastern Wisc
onsin that operates under the motto "Justice for the earth and all its inhabitan
ts."
In 2000 Sister Janet and others in her Dominican convent -- part of the Catholic
order known for its scholarly tradition -- got together to discuss issues of ed
ucation and social justice that were not being met in schools in Racine, a large
ly working-class city of 80,000 people in Wisconsin's manufacturing corridor on
the shore of Lake Michigan, 33 miles south of Milwaukee and 60 miles north of Ch
icago. At the time, a nearby coal-fired power plant was planning a billion-dolla
r expansion, which highlighted the need, in Sister Janet's mind, for students to
understand the links between their lives and the environment. Guided by more th
an 40 years of experience as an educator -- as an art teacher, school principal,
and college chaplain -- she proposed creating a community center where children
and adults "could spend time with nature and learn to cherish it and love it."
For four years, Sister Janet searched for a place that could provide a hands-on
learning experience and also house six nuns. Then one day she received a call fr
om a former county official who had read about her quest in the local newspaper.
He told her he had cancer and could no longer maintain his 15-acre farm; he sol
d the property to Sister Janet and the Dominican sisters at a fraction of its ma
rket value.
The 1912 Dutch colonial farmhouse needed renovations and the old barn was fallin
g apart. Now a geothermal system heats and cools the house, and 55 solar panels
on the granary heat water and feed kilowatts back to the grid. Countertops were
crafted from the floorboards of an old bowling alley and shelves from cut-up chu
rch pews. The floors in the farmhouse are red oak recycled from the mansion of a
former Milwaukee sausage baron.
On this morning, three cars brimming with families of grade schoolers pull up th
e dirt road that leads to the center. Sister Janet, clad in knee-high muck boots
, black jeans, and a baggy T-shirt, squishes through the wet hay to greet them.
They've come to plant vegetables. Together with their parents, the children star
t by charting square-foot grids across raised garden beds.
Sister Janet watches as one boy digs a shallow hole for a leafy broccoli plant.
"Rudy, that little baby's going to blow right over," she says, gently taking the
spade. "Now hold that little guy like this," she adds, placing the broccoli in
his cupped hands. Dark soil crumbles between his fingertips as he examines the t
hreadlike roots.
Rudy's mother says they have a flower garden at home, but she brings her family
here to plant their vegetables because of the sense of community Sister Janet ha
s created. "It's a bond that we share with other families around food. We are gr
ateful for this experience -- to see vegetables grow from the ground and even kn
ow what a chicken coop smells like. It's so much more emotionally satisfying tha
n buying things in packages at the supermarket," she says as she knots a bit of
nylon rope around a makeshift trellis that will soon support new tomato vines.
"Preach by what you do and how you live," Sister Janet says, reaching for a hand
ful of weeds. "Only use words if you need to."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
Ten Steps To Develop New Habits
By Marelisa Fabrega

See all articles by Marelisa Fabrega

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The famous Greek philosopher Aristotle taught the following about habits: "We ar
e what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit." The acti
ons we carry out repeatedly form our habits, and then our habits create our live
s. If you put in the effort to create good habits, these habits will help you li
ve your optimal life. On the other hand, if you have negative habits such as smo
king, watching too much television, oversleeping, procrastinating, and so on, th
ese bad habits will act as a powerful deterrent to accomplishing your goals.
In order to create a positive habit, or get rid of a negative one, follow the te
n steps laid out below:
1. Focus on changing one habit at a time. By putting all of your focus into
trying to create one positive habit, or trying to break one bad habit, your cha
nces of succeeding are much higher than if you scatter your energy trying to cha
nge many habits at the same time. It may seem to be more efficient to tackle sev
eral habits at once, but by doing this you ll become overwhelmed and will probably
fail to create any lasting results.
2. Know why you re doing it. It will be much easier for you to adopt a habit
if you re very clear on why you want to add that particular habit to your life. Wh
at benefits will you derive if you adopt this new habit? Write it down. After tr
uly thinking about why you want to adopt a certain habit, you might decide that
it s not really something you re interested in after all. On the other hand, a list
of benefits is a strong motivator that will help you to achieve those habits tha
t you do decide to take on.
3. Conduct a 30-day trial: Although most people would agree that it takes 2
1 days to ingrain a new habit, Steve Pavlina a well-known personal development wri
ter--suggests that you conduct a 30-day trial. He argues that it s easier to maint
ain something that you ve done for a period of 30 days, that the 30 days of succes
s will give you the confidence to continue, and that in 30 days you can gather e
nough feedback to decide what s working and what s not. Also, it s easier to convince
yourself to do something for 30 days, as opposed to trying to talk yourself into
doing something for the rest of your life.
4. Make it small and simple. If exercising for an hour each day is too much
of a daunting task, start out by exercising 20 minutes a day. You can always in
crease the amount as you go along. On the other hand, if the task seems insurmou
ntable from the get-go you ll never get started. For example, you can t leap from a
life of careless spending to a life of frugality. Start off by taking small step
s.
5. If you re trying to break a bad habit, you have to replace it with somethi
ng else. The bad habit is serving some purpose in your life. By taking it away y
ou re creating a void which needs to be filled by something else or the bad habit
will simply find its way back into the void. If you smoke to relieve stress, you
need to find a more productive way to relax, such as getting a massage or takin
g up yoga.
6. Set up your environment to help you. If you re trying to stop eating junk
food, don t have junk food in the house. If you want to stop watching television,
put the television in the closet. If you want to exercise first thing in the mor
ning, lay out your running clothes and tennis shoes the night before so they re th
e first thing you see when you wake up in the morning.
7. Chart your progress. Print out a calendar with 30 days on it and every d
ay when you keep to your new habit mark it on the calendar. Follow comedian Jerr
y Seinfeld s advice: for each day he does his task of writing, he puts a big red X
over that day, which after a few days--creates a chain. He adds that you have to
make sure not to break the chain.
8. Do it with a buddy or join an online group. It s good to share your progre
ss, or lack thereof, with people who are going through the same thing you are or
have already gone through it. The benefit of getting a buddy to adopt a habit a
long with you, or to join an online group where everyone is trying to create the
same habit, is twofold: it creates accountability and it gives you a support gr
oup.
9. Make it visual. Go back to your list of why you want to create a new hab
it. Do you want to lose weight so that you look great in a swim suit? Find pictu
res of people with the body you want, cut them out, and place them where you can
see them. For any habit you re trying to create, find images that represent the b
enefits that you associate with adopting that new habit and create a vision boar
d for yourself with those images. Look at them often.
10. Visualize yourself creating your new habit. Creative visualization is us
ing your imagination to create a clear mental picture of something you want to c
reate in your life. Your imagination is very powerful, and it can be a great aid
if you use it correctly. A very useful tool for applying creative visualization
is the Silva Life System. The Silva Life System will teach you how to slow down
your brain waves to the alpha level, the brain frequency associated with medita
tion. It has been shown that the use of affirmations and creative visualization
is more effective at the alpha level.
If you choose a different habit to work on each month, in a twelve-month period
your life will be completely different from what it is today. Follow the steps o
utlined above and begin creating new habits right away.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------
Four Ways to Commit to a New Habit
by author Laina Shulman, DC

A habit is defined as a recurrent, often unconscious pattern of behaviour that i

s acquired through frequent repetition. We live mostly by habit, says Ann Graybiel
, an MIT professor of brain and cognitive sciences.
From the time we wake up, most of what we do, eat, and think will be the same as
it was yesterday. We turn on the coffee, grab the paper while the shower heats
up, get in the car, drive to work and don t remember driving there.
Of course, habits can be very useful; it would be overwhelming if we had to thin
k through every decision as if for the first time. Although most habits are harm
less, we all have a few we wish we could change. Which of your habits would you
like to change?
Trying to create new habits because we should is rarely effective. Identifying o
ur unique reasons for wanting to change a habit, however, allows us to tap into
our willpower and reach our goals.
Four Steps to Create the Habits You Desire
1. Identify the habit you would like to change or create. If your goal is to get
rid of an existing bad habit, be sure to identify the behaviour you are going to
substitute. Be very specific. I want to get fit is not a new habit. I will go to th
e gym on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays from 6 to 8pm instead of watching te
levision is more
specific and doable.
2. Discover your willpower. Write down all of your motivations for developing th
is new habit. We all have different reasons for developing new habits. Perhaps y
ou want to go to the gym to meet people, lose weight, lower your blood pressure,
or feel youthful. Look at how this new habit will benefit all areas of your lif
e. How will it affect your spouse, children, job, income, social contacts, and p
hysical health? The more thorough you are when doing this exercise, the easier i
t will be for you to follow through. Keep writing until you can t imagine a life w
ithout this new behaviour.
3. Examine the consequences. Write down all the ways that your life will be nega
tively affected if you do not change your habits. Again, consider all areas of y
our life, physical and emotional.
4. Commit to your new habit for a minimum of 21 days. Research tells us that it
takes a minimum of three weeks to develop a new habit. At the beginning, examine
the lists from the previous two steps and add to them daily. As Zig Ziglar, wel
l-known self-help author and speaker, wisely said: People often say that motivati
on doesn t last. Well, neither does bathing that s why we recommend it daily.
Creating a new habit is not easy, unless the reasons for doing so are important.
When we say that we can t change a specific habit, what we are really saying is t
hat we don t have a big enough reason why we should. What I know for certain is th
at when the whys are big enough, the hows take care of themselves.
Laina Shulman, DC, the co-founder of Pure-Health and the Pure-Health Show, is a
chiropractor, writer, and professional speaker. www.pure-health.com.
Source: alive #283, May 2006
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------
How to Form a New Habit
Episode 163: January 10, 2011
home | work | organization
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by Stever Robbins
It's the time of year to make your resolutions come true! After reading or liste
ning to my last episode on how to set the right goals, you have outcome goals an
d the process goals you hope will lead to those outcomes. Now you must make thos
e process goals a habit. Scientific American Mind magazine says it takes 9 weeks
to form a new habit. Hogwash. The answer to how to form a habit can be found in
fairy tales.
You can also get help forming new habits, working less, and doing more with the
programs I offer at http://www.SteverRobbins.com.
How to Form a New Habit
The Evil Queen in Snow White is misunderstood. She just had an unhealthy obsessi
on with an unrealistic, media-hyped body image. She would sooth her insecurity b
y asking her magic mirror, "Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest of th
em all?" It said "Snow White," who was, of course, pretty fair. So the Evil Quee
n fed Snow White a poisoned apple. But having Snow White gone gave the Queen tim
e for serious introspection. She realized a more mature response to her body iss
ues would be exercising more, lowering her saturated fats, and eating fewer empt
y carbs. Her cook didn't know South Beach, so the Queen resolved to cook for her
self. But being a Queen, evil or not, is a big job! Exercise and cooking take ti
me, not including the time to read the cookbooks and exercise books.
Right now, you fill 24 hours a day with activity (sleep is an activity). You'll
need some of that time for the new habit you're forming. If your new habit invol
ves adding something to your schedule, you have to drop something else to make t
he time. Otherwise, even if you know how, you won't have the chance to form that
new habit.
Make Time for Your New Habit
If you resolve to stop doing something, like stop eating Oreo ice cream cake (sa
y it isn't so!), that's what you'll drop. Decide now what else you'll do with th
at time. "Instead of eating Oreo ice cream cake, I will snack on carrots and hum
mus I will carry with me in a small, plastic container." If you add something, l
ike packing up daily carrots and hummus, you might have to cut out watching that
extra episode of Real Housewives of New Jersey you DVR. Sacrifice, my friends!
The Evil Queen also resolved to buy fewer new clothes, which she had used to fil
l the void in her self-esteem. She realized she could keep her shopping trips, o
nly she would shop for healthy groceries and visit Healthworks Gym for Women in
the time she used to spend shopping. Combining two outcomes like this is an exam
ple of leverage, which I cover in detail in Chapter 9 of my book Get-it-Done Guy
's 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More.
She could make time other ways, too. Having a strong sense of duty as a Monarch,
she often stayed late at court, to help peasants resolve disputes. She could le
ave on time, instead, and find time that way. It would affect her daily caseload
, but being self-employed, she could make that decision. And besides, with the m
oney she saved on clothes, a small pay cut was fine.
Identify the Trigger for the New Habit
Once she knows there's time to from her habit, the Evil Queen needs to choose a
trigger to know when the new habit is needed. The trigger is whatever she would
see, feel, or hear that says it's time to work out. If she works out at 7 p.m. e
ach day, the trigger would be the sight of her royal wristwatch showing seven, o
r the sound of seven church bells. That didn't work, because state dinners and d
iplomatic meetings made her schedule unpredictable. But her former shopping bing
es always happened right after visiting the Magic Mirror. In those moments, she
always found the time for a trip to the mall. She chose the image of her magic m
irror as her trigger, figuring if she could find the time to shop and prepare po
isoned apples on the spur of the moment, she could just change destinations and
hit the gym instead.
Use 3rd Person Mental Rehearsal to Validate the New Habit
If your new habit involves adding something to your schedule, you have to drop s
omething else to make the time.
Putting the habit into place is next. Humans have "mirror neurons." When we see
someone do something, our mirror neurons help us imitate it. That's how we learn
. That's also how to form a new habit: start by running a mental move of yoursel
f encountering the trigger and doing the new habit. See yourself in the movie, a
s if you were standing to one side. Notice the expression on your face, the way
you walk and move, and so on.
The Evil Queen closed her eyes and saw herself walk to the magic mirror. In her
mind, she sees herself ask, "Mirror, Mirror on the Wall, where's my leotard and
exercise ball?" In the back of the coach! Now hurry! Pilates starts in five minut
es." She saw herself smile in anticipation and run to take the Coach to the gym.

But in her movie, her stilettos made her trip on the stairs and she sprained an
ankle. So she changed the movie to show her changing into sneakers first. Runnin
g the 3rd person movie helps your mirror neurons and lets you fix problems befor
e they happen.
How to Form a Habit by Imagining Muscle Movements
Once it looks good, step into the movie and run it again, this time from your ow
n point of view. Imagine how your muscles and body feel from the trigger all the
way through. The Evil Queen saw the mirror through her own eyes, felt herself a
sk the question, then felt her attention shift to the gym shoes, felt their feel
ing against the steps as she jogged to the coach. She ran the movie all the way
to feeling her core contract in Pilates class. Then she imagined feeling satisfa
ction and happiness at taking care of herself.
Lock the new habit by mentally rehearsing from trigger to new behavior to feelin
g of accomplishment in 1st person. Run it ten times, faster each time, until you
do it in under a couple of seconds. This makes the association between trigger
and new habit stronger and less conscious.
That's how to form a habit: Make time your schedule, find your trigger, rehearse
in 3rd person, and then rehearse it 1st person, all the way through to the good
feeling once you've done the new habit. Rehearse until you run it super-fast, t
o lock in the connection between trigger and behavior.
The Evil Queen lost 35 pounds, and firmed up her abs. She feels great and her bl
ood pressure is way down. She revived Snow White and gave the Seven Dwarves jobs
at court where they could apply their diverse points of view to policy advice.
They make the story into a documentary, and won an Oscar for Snow White and the
Seven Secrets to a Great Six Pack.
Work Less, Do More, and have a Great Life!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------
21 day challenge develop new habits
by ERNEST on NOVEMBER 17, 2009
in GETTING STUFF DONE,MOTIVATION,NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING (NLP),PRODUCTIVITY
,YOUR BRAIN,FEATURED
Anything you do with repetition and emotion will become your reality. If you re not
satisfied with your current experience, examine your habits. says Dr. Andrew Wei
l.
The Research that it takes 21 days (3 weeks) to form a habit has been around for
 some time now and is widely accepted part of self-help programs. Some have chal
lenged this quick habit change, bringing to light valid points on variation amon
g people. No doubt not everyone s mental states are the same and it s also unlikely
everyone will follow a strict routine to change their habit thus smearing the 21
days goal. This is why I call this the 21 day challenge because I believe that with
repetition, emotion, focus, and a plan (goals & review) one can achieve a habit
change in 21 days.
Do this
Devote 30 minutes a day to the formation of your new habit, and do this faithful
ly for 21 days. By the end of your 21 day challenge, it should actually be harde
r not to engage in the new behavior than it would be to continue doing it.
Where it all began
The 21-day concept was first introduced by Dr. Maxwell Maltz, in a book titled,
Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More Living Out of Life. Dr Maxwell Maltz,
noticed that it took 21 days for amputees to cease feeling phantom sensations in
the amputated limb. From further observations he found it took 21 days to creat
e a new habit.
The science behind this goes like this;
Brain circuits take engrams (memory traces), and produce neuroconnections and neu
ropathways only if they are bombarded for 21 days in a row. This means that our
brain does not accept new data for a change of habit unless it is repeated each da
y for 21 days (without missing a day). Psycho-Cybernetics, A New Way to Get More
Living Out of Life
Without missing a day? Yes. Because your conscious mind creates the belief and t
he subconscious mind then executes the belief it is important to keep on fueling
that fire until it is self sustaining.

Why this Knowledge is so Powerful?

We all want to change something about our self to some degree. Whether it is to
give up or change something in our life we are always striving to reach that nex
t level. What I am suggesting here is that all you have to do is give it 21 days
(3 weeks) of 100% effort and it will become a new habit.
For example:
Reduce your consumption of sugar for 21 days. You will be amazed what this will
do to your taste buds and figure! Sugar, especially high fructose sugar is a maj
or player in the increase of diabetes in our population. High fructose sugar is
in most produce see the label on your drink.
Meditate for 21 days. Who says you can t still your monkey mind and bring inner pe
ace. The wonders of meditation are immense in eliminating stress & anxiety, givi
ng you the power of clear focus & better decision making et al.
Get up before 6am every day. This will give you plenty more hours in a day to en
joy with your family / loved ones and / or work on that business idea. Here are
a number of steps I take to help me sleep less and have more energy.
Eat greens (salads) for lunch for 21 days and feel better, stronger and fitter!
The list is endless. Find something needing change in your life and apply the 21
day challenge today.
Sustaining Motivation
This is the hardest part of any change. How to sustain motivation to continue th
roughout the 21 days. Here are some great points to keep you moving.
1. Daily Review your list of reasons for quitting or changing.
2. Create mental pictures of yourself as having already succeeded with your h
abit change.
3. Make affirmations, positive self-statements about your habit change. For e
xample, I am filled with so much health and vitality now that I exercise four tim
es a week.
4. Reward yourself. Make up a list of self-rewards. Reward yourself verbally.
5. Remember to take one day at a time. If you do backslide, don t label yoursel
f as having failed. Get out your list or reasons for quitting or changing and be
gin again.
So, what is your 21 day challenge?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
How to Develop a New Habit
By an eHow Contributor
There is a saying that it takes 21 days to create a new habit. The only habits t
hat should be deliberately developed are good ones that replace bad ones. The fo
llowing steps will help you create new habits in your life.
Difficulty: Moderately Challenging
Instructions
Things You'll Need:
Bad habits
Calendar or date book
Pad of adhesive notes
1
Identify the bad habit you want to replace. Make it something fairly small--a su
re way to fail is to try to change too much at once.
2
Write down why you're replacing the habit on adhesive notes. Post them in places
where you'll see them often, such as on your bathroom mirror or the door of the
refrigerator.
3
Mark a calendar. It takes about 3 weeks to develop a habit so give yourself 1 mo
nth to make sure to have enough time. Write on your wall calendar or make an ent
ry on every page of a date book for 1 month to remind you to work on your new ha
bit.
4
Make a Top 5 List of the reasons you want to replace your habit and keep it in y
our purse, on your desk or other handy place. Whenever you feel your will slippi
ng, read the list to remind yourself why the extra work is worth it.
5
Try affirmations. Tell yourself that you can succeed at changing your habit. Try
saying, "I am a person who drinks plenty of water" or "I love to exercise."
6
Keep it going. When the month is up, start on a new habit, but don't forget the
one you just changed. Make it a habit to develop new habits, and in a year you'l
l be a much-improved person.
Read more: How to Develop a New Habit | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/how_2057338
_develop-new-habit.html#ixzz1AlLzW59H
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------
How to Form a Good Habit

Bad habits are easy to make, but extremely hard to end. Good habits, on the othe
r hand, tend to take more time to make. Luckily, scientists agree that the avera
ge person needs at least 3 weeks to form a good habit. For more specific means o
f doing this, this article should help.
editSteps
1Know what you want. If you can perfectly visualize the habit in your head, the
work will be easier.
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erience!
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2Make a list of the benefits of your new habit. For example, if you quit smoking
, you are likely to become more healthy. Make a separate list of the costs, i.e.
, people may not view you as "cool." Try to debunk the costs, i.e. if people rea
lly like you, they will find it as a benefit.
3Commit to the habit. If you want to change, you have to work at it. Do not quit
if you have one failure. And don't blame yourself for the failure either. It's
usually not your fault.
4Set your own goals, and reward yourself. Write the goals down, and post them al
l around. In your kitchen, bedroom, office, even the bathroom if necessary. Once
you've met those goals, treat yourself to a movie or a pizza. As long as the tr
eat isn't anything you're trying to quit.
5Start slowly. If you want to become stronger or faster, choose short exercises
at first. Then, make them larger, in order to adapt to the habit.
6Go for consistency rather than performance. For example, if your goal is to do
daily push ups, it's better to start by doing one push up EVERY DAY for a month
than by doing 20 push ups for two days and then giving up. After you have done o
ne pushup consistently for a number of days, you have formed the habit. Now incr
ease the number of push ups gradually from there, all the while striving to do s
ome number of push ups EVERY day.
7Consult a friend. It's what they're there for. To comfort and help you in times
of need. Ask them to keep track of your accomplishments, or act as a therapist
if something goes wrong. It's alright to do this. They should be happy to.
8Even after your goals are set, don't continue to smoke, take drugs, or stop exe
rcising. You need to make this a lifetime thing if you're serious about it, and
you can't stop after just 3 weeks.
9It can be tough to muster up the motivation you need to change your lifestyle.
Pick up a good habit like exercising or drop an unhealthy one like quitting smok
ing. Using each Monday to recommit if you fall off track; that way, you have 52
chances a year to get motivated to make a change in your life. Healthy Monday is
a non-profit national public health campaign that encourages people to use Mond
ay as the day for all things healthy.

If you're trying to start a good habit, then you probably had a bad habit to beg
in with. If so, empty your house and work space of the thing you're trying to qu
it, or any item that may make you want to end the habit-making process. If you w
ant to quit smoking, get rid of cigarettes. If you want to eat healthier, get ri
d of most unhealthy foods in you pantry etc.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
How to Change a Habit
Habits are patterns that run our lives. Habits take the pressure off of needing
to consciously control every aspect of daily life. These patterns run in the bac
kground allowing us to focus our efforts on more important things. Our brain cre
ates these patterns to help us run common tasks on autopilot so we don t have to s
pend our attention on them.
Despite the incredible power of habits, there are probably a few habits you d like
to remove. I m going to go over exactly how we can remove these negative habits i
n our lives in this article and replace them with habits that will make our life
better. Once you master the ability to change your habits you can rapidly incre
ase your own personal growth.
If you were a computer, then your habits would be your software. Habits are the
little routines you automatically execute. Your computer handles millions of int
eractions without input from yourself, just as you have thousands of tiny habits
that control your behavior. The biggest problem we have is we don t really spend
enough time thinking about how to remove those pieces of software we think are d
estructive. We might try to remove it completely and various other pieces of sof
tware can collapse.
If you want to remove or change a habit you really need to spend more time plann
ing it. Changing habits can often be a delicate surgery, especially for really e
ntrenched habits. If you are one of the people that simply likes to use willpowe
r to change all of your habits, then it is going to be much more difficult to se
e permanent results. Removing with willpower alone is like trying to conduct tha
t surgery with a club. Instead, we need to find our scalpel.
Step One: Analyze
The first step to change any habit is to analyze why we have the habit in the fi
rst place. If a habit were entirely destructive, we wouldn t use it. The reason an
y habit exists is because at some level it gives us positive reinforcement. Even
if that positive reinforcement is incredibly underwhelmed by the pain it create
s, it has to exist, otherwise we simply wouldn t participate in the habit.
If we are trying to create a brand new habit, we need to consider how this new h
abit will impact our existing ones. A habit can only be changed, never removed o
r added. So if you are trying to add the habit of exercising, then you are going
to have to replace the habit from what you would normally do with that time. If
you want to wake up earlier, you are going to have to replace your old habit of
sleeping in.
Analyze how making this habit modification will impact the other software you ar
e currently running. Take time to ask yourself how this will impact the various
aspects of your life. Will adding more exercise take away from your family, busi
ness or leisure time? What aspects are going to be affected and how?
Step Two: Form a Strategy
Now that you have analyzed how your habit will affect your life, you need to for
m a strategy for introducing the new strategy. Likely you will need to make a bu
nch of minor habitual adjustments in order to smoothly transition your new habit
. Identifying as many of these minor changes will be the difference between maki
ng habit surgery go with a scalpel or with a club.
If you are starting a new diet, you need to identify all the other things you wi
ll need to adjust to compensate. Will you need to buy new food? Will you need to
stock new food? Will you have to change the food you order at restaurants? Will
you have to learn how to cook this new food? Will you have to replace your habi
t of eating when stressed to a different activity?
The failure of most habit changes lies in this step. Most people do a brief over
view of step one and then jump right into surgery. Then when they fail they beli
eve that the problem was they didn t have enough willpower. Willpower can be a goo
d tool, but it can t compensate for poorly conceiving this step.
Your strategy should be comprehensive to the scale of the habit you wish to repl
ace. When I decided not to eat any animal products, I spent a lot of time in thi
s phase to ensure that the whole process went smoothly, and to this day I don t co
nsume any animal protein. Some habits are relatively simple, like limiting e-mai
l checking or web surfing. Others like lifestyle and dietary ones may take hours
of proper planning.
Step Three: Prepare
Preparation is the third step. In this phase you need to change your intellectua
l need to change a bad habit into a good one, and add the emotional component. T
ony Robbins has some great info on this step as he says that you need to change
the neurological associations you are making. You need to associate incredible p
ain to your old habit and incredible pleasure to your new one.
To associate pain you need to find emotional evidence that really reinforces you
r change. If you are trying to quit smoking, go visit people who are dying of em
physema and lung cancer. Look at graphic pictures of what happens to your body w
hen you smoke. Take a look at your friends and family and think about the effect
on their lives if you were gone. Even if you are young right now, think about y
our grandchildren, wouldn t you like to know them?
Just from reading this I think you can get the idea. The pain needs to be real a
nd tangible. You need to feel agonized, disgusted and sick when you think of goi
ng back to your old habit. If you don t have this emotional connection, a lasting
change will be much harder, if not impossible.
Now, you need to associate incredible pleasure to the new habit. Go talk to peop
le who have kicked the smoking habit for good and ask them how it has improved t
heir life. Go to online support forums and talk to friends and family that you t
hink will support you. Think of how your life will be once you will be able to b
reathe clearly, knowing that you don t have those toxins in collecting in your lun
gs.
I always laugh when I hear people asking if they can still eat what they want wh
en they are on their diet. Diets that proclaim that you still will be able to ea
t all those foods you love. What do you think made you overweight and unhealthy
in the first place?!?
You need to get to an emotional threshold where the idea of putting those potato
chips and fast food in your mouth feels disgusting. You also need to love the i
dea of eating whole grains, vegetables and lighter meals. If you still love grea
sy foods, you ll never be able to give them up.
Step Four: Act!
If you have successfully gone through the past three steps you probably can t wait
to get your new habit started. Now is the time to set in place your new habit a
nd condition it so it becomes a part of your life. Take that piece of software a
nd run it through your computer until it becomes fully integrated.
There are many ways to do this step. My personal favorite is the 30 Day Trial, i
ntroduced to me by Steve Pavlina. The basic premise is that you challenge yourse
lf to keep up the habit for 30 days no matter what. After the thirty days are do
ne, the habit is usually suitably reinforced to allow you to continue on automat
ic.
You can see how I used this process to run a trial to exercise for at least an h
our every day in my own life, here. Make sure you make your trial written down,
and if you can, make a public commitment. You need to make leverage against your
self to keep from backing down.
Here are some tips for those who want to use the 30 Day Trial method:
1) Use proper goal setting techniques. I briefly wrote about them here.
2) If the challenge is particularly tough, keep a journal for your trial. I used
this when starting my strict vegetarian diet and it allowed me to work through
small obstacles. Remember to write to solve problems!
3) Ensure that the habit will be repeated at least once per day. If your habit i
s on a weekly basis, you will need to extend the length of the trial in order to
properly condition it. I made this mistake by running four week trials (roughly
30 days) which failed miserably because four repetitions isn t enough to properly
condition a habit.
4) Reward yourself! If you are sticking to your habit then you deserve a reward.
Just make sure that if you are on a health related diet that reward doesn t inter
fere with your challenge. But this could be watching your favorite TV show or go
ing to see your friends. Don t reward yourself after a week or a month, but as soo
n as you ve taken the first few steps.
5) Have fun! Changing your life for the better should be fun. Remember, you are
making changes that will allow you more time, joy and fulfillment in the future!
Conclusion
Here are the four steps, once again:
1) Analyze
2) Form a Strategy
3) Prepare (pain and pleasure)
4) Act!
My procedure for changing habits may seem like overkill to some, but overkill is
way better than under-kill. I liken this four step process to using a TNT blast
to scrape out your habits compared to the conventional method of throwing a few
rocks. This process may take a little bit of time, but you will end up saving w
illpower, energy and your sanity by doing this now.
If you haven t really experienced a lot of habit changes in your life, then I woul
dn t suggest a massive one to start. Try changing a small habit with this method.
Maybe this habit could be reading for fifteen minutes per day. Dietary changes a
re some of the hardest habits to change, so don t feel bad if you ve had trouble wit
h them in the past.
Take control of your life by taking control of your habits to get the most out o
f your life!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------
How To Change/Break A Habit
It Takes 21 Days
Daily Activities To Help Change Habits
"I should change, but I've tried and failed." Does this sound familiar? Often, c
hanging habits does seem insurmountable. Many of us simply don't have enough mot
ivation to change our habits - all of our bad habits - in a way that would truly
affect our health. We cling to them because we see them as rewards.
But your habits determine your health. Below is a strategy and focus on daily ac
tivities to help you change and eliminate bad habits.
It Takes 21 Days To Break A Bad Habit
To begin with, choose one unhealthy habit you wish to eliminate or change. Or, c
hoose a healthy habit you want to adopt as part of your behavior. If it is a hab
it to eliminate, you may wish to go "cold turkey" or have a gradual tapering off
. Caution: If it is a drug or chemical habit you are planning on eliminating, be
sure to obtain an expert's opinion as to whether you need to taper off usage as
opposed to quitting cold turkey.
Now that you have decided which unhealthy habit to eliminate, or new habit to ad
opt, decide on the date you will begin your behavior change. Give this date a go
od deal of thought and then write it down. For example, "On February 15, 2001, I
will become a non-smoker."
In order to ensure behavior change, experts agree that it takes a minimum of 21
days to change a behavior. Again, look at the date you are planning on changing
your habit. Count ahead 21 days and mark that date down. Now, make a commitment
that you will follow your plan for 21 days.
Helpful Suggestions
Your target date has arrived. It is the first day of your 21-day cycle. Here are
some helpful suggestions for habit change:
Write down your goal. There is magic in the written word when it applies to you.
Experts recommend stating your goal in positive terms, such as "I want to be le
an and physically fit," instead of "I've got to get this flabby body out there h
uffing and puffing." So, begin with writing down, as a positive goal, the habit
you will change.
List your reasons for changing or eliminating your habit. Writing it down will f
orce you to think out in specific terms what this habit represents in your life
and the meaning you believe your life will hold for you upon changing the habit.
This will also help with your commitment toward taking positive action.
Find substitute routines. For example, if you are changing eating habits and you
have identified a particularly difficult time of the day when eating habits are
poor, create an activity, a new routine for that time.
Talk to yourself. Tell yourself you're making progress. Remind yourself that you
are moving closer to your goal.. Talk to yourself throughout the day about how
you are going to avoid triggers that can get you off track and make healthy subs
titutes.
Recruit helpers for support. Explain to them why you are making this change. Ask
for their support. Their support may be needed encouragement.
Be prepared for people who may sabotage your change. Be assertive and tell them
what they are doing.
Sustaining Motivation
The following are some suggestions to follow each day in order to sustain motiva
tion and determination:
Review your list of reasons for quitting or changing.
Create mental pictures of yourself as having already succeeded with your habit c
hange.
Make affirmations, positive self-statements about your habit change. For example
, "I am filled with so much health and vitality now that I exercise four times a
week."
Reward yourself. Make up a list of self-rewards. Reward yourself verbally.
Remember to take one day at a time. If you do backslide, don't label yourself as
having failed. Get out your list or reasons for quitting or changing and begin
again.
Fatigue, boredom, depression, stress can all make it difficult to stick with you
r program. But having a relapse isn't as important as how you deal with the rela
pse. If you are so devastated by failure that you call your good intentions into
question, that will make habit change harder for you. But, if you allow for an
occasional relapse and treat it as nothing more than a slight misstep that teach
es you something, then you're on the right track.
Follow the suggestions in this article, adopt the more helpful attitude of evalu
ating your progress and accepting relapses, and you will find yourself reaching
many of your goals. You will have achieved true behavior change.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
As every New Year approaches, many of us are doing the usual...thinking, "This y
ear will be different. I'm going to change...(fill in the blanks)...my work habi
ts, my attitudes. I'll lose those pounds; I'll make that difficult choice that's
long overdue." We re-make these resolutions throughout the year.
But will really follow through until the goals are accomplished? Or will this ne
w "determination" be like the others...lots of good intentions, plenty of wishes
, but basically, life goes on as usual?
Research on personal change (Prochaska, Norcross, and Diclemente; "Changing for
Good") has demonstrated that successful change comes in six well-defined stages.
Perhaps the failure to recognize these stages has been responsible for your pas
t frustrations and failures in following through on self improvements.
You see, each of these stages has a series of tasks that must be completed befor
e you can progress to the next. You set yourself up for failure when you either
try to accomplish changes you aren't ready for or when you stay so long on tasks
you've mastered (such as understanding your problem) that you become stuck inde
finitely.
Think about your past experiences as you read what happens in these six stages.
STAGE 1: PRECONTEMPLATION
When you're at this stage, you aren't even admitting you have a problem. We've a
ll seen unhealthy denial in others. We often have trouble seeing it in ourselves
.
Writer G.K. Chesterton said, "It isn't that they can't see the solution. It's th
at they can't see the problem."
Precontemplators don't want to change themselves. They think others are to blame
for their difficulties. Likely, others are experiencing the precontemplator's p
roblem and may be applying pressure for him or her to change. The responses...de
nial and resistance.
Are you in this stage? Chances are, you are with at least one of the destructive
and self-defeating behaviors you need to change.
STAGE 2: CONTEMPLATION
When you move to the Contemplation stage, you acknowledge you have a problem, an
d you want to get unstuck. You begin to think seriously about solving your probl
em. You try to understand its causes, and you begin to investigate your options.
At this point you have indefinite plans to take action within the next few mont
hs.
However, you can stay stuck in this stage for months or years. (Is this where yo
u are now?) You know you need to change, and you intend to...someday...just as s
oon as...after...when the rush is over (when would that be?). You know your desi
re and your destination, but you're not quite ready to go.
Fear of failure can keep you searching for an easier, more dramatic, or more com
plete solution to your problem. The irony is, failure is guaranteed if you don't
move on to the next stage.
STAGE 3: PREPARATION
"If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."
You greatly reduce your success probability if you suddenly wake up one morning,
 say "This is the day," and dive headfirst into a change without realistically a
nd specifically planning how you will make the change happen.
At Stage 3, you develop a detailed plan of action and you may announce your inte
ntions publicly. Your awareness is high, and you may have already begun small be
havioral changes. Before moving ahead, however, you need to know exactly how you
will keep your awareness and commitment high throughout the struggles of the ne
xt stages.
STAGE 4: ACTION
This stage is the one that requires the most commitment and energy. It's where y
ou actually DO IT! You receive the most recognition and support during this stag
e, because others can see that you're working at it. You follow the plan you've
made in Stage 3, make revisions as necessary, and "keep on keeping on" even when
it's inconvenient or difficult.
Here's a caution: Action doesn't necessarily mean that lasting change has been m
ade. It's an essential part of the process, but the failure to do what's necessa
ry in the next stage, Maintenance, can sabotage the progress you've made so far.
STAGE 5: MAINTENANCE
The maintenance stage is a long, ongoing process. From my experience, it's the m
ost difficult. (How many times have I dieted, for example, only to gain the weig
ht back?)
The Action stage must be followed by constant vigilance and a systematic plan fo
r dealing with those temptations that can draw you back into the old, destructiv
e pattern. It's hard work to consolidate the gains you've made during the first
four stages and to prevent relapse.
Celebrate achieving your goals, but don't relax and tell yourself, "Whew! I'm gl
ad that's over!" Develop a menu of mental and behavioral coping strategies that
will take you through the times when your feet begin to slip. (More on that in t
he next article.)
STAGE 6: TERMINATION
There is lively debate about whether this stage is possible when the behavior yo
u've changed is an addictive habit. The ideal would be that you no longer feel t
empted, and the habit is absolutely not a problem for you. Some say, however, th
at you must always maintain a life of vigilance.
I tend to agree. Some can progress to the point that they are not constantly tem
pted, nor do they think about it every day. However, I believe that once you've
had a deeply ingrained habit or addiction, you are always more vulnerable than i
f you'd never had it. Keep a level of awareness, especially in times of stress.
Studies show that in times of stress or conflict, people are most likely to slip
.
NOT A LINEAR PROGRESSION
Wouldn't it be nice if we smoothly progressed from one stage to the next? It's p
ossible, but not probable. Most people have episodes of backsliding into Contemp
lation or even Precontemplation before trying again. In fact, studies show that
New Year's resolutions are made, on average, five times before the changer moves
all the way to Maintenance! (That's average. You don't have to do it that many
times if you know how to move more effectively through these six stages.)
Don't give up! If you have a setback, don't stay there. Pick yourself up, dust y
ourself off, and try again...this time with a revised and better plan.
Dr. Bev Smallwood is a psychologist who has worked with organizations across the
globe for over 20 years. Her high-energy, high-content, high-involvement Magnet
ic Workplaces (r) programs provide dozens of practical strategies and skills tha
t can be put to work immediately to:
build strong leaders who influence and develop others through serving;
energize, motivate, and retain team members;
successfully accomplish important organizational transitions; and
impress customers and build their loyalty.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------
To Change a Habit, You have to Change a Bit of Yourself

Vijai P. Sharma, Ph.D

Nobody wants to lose anything. Everybody wants to gain something. Then why do we
have so many "weight loss" programs? Language is deep seated in our brain. Spee
ch does affect our behavior. The word "loss" evokes such images in our mind as p
ain, loneliness, or deprivation of love. Titles such as, "Optimal Weight Gain Pr
ogram" or "Weight for Health and Happiness" get my vote.
To change a habit, you have to often change the direction in which you had been
going. Sometimes, it does involve changing the direction of your whole life. Som
e addictions and compulsive behaviors are just the milestones of the path of sel
f-destruction. We tend to think of a habit (or an addiction) as an "add on" item
something like, "It somehow got added to my life and now I should take it off (
or get rid off)." As a result of this kind of thinking, we are drawn towards qui
ck fixes and patchwork remedies. It is an "instant meal" lure. Had it not been f
or this thinking, most dieting programs would have died of market starvation, le
ft without a steady diet of consumers. A human being is a whole.
Here is an example of how a piecemeal approach to weight problem leaves much to
be desired for: according to the Department of Human and Health Services report
of 1996, girls reaching puberty become less physically active. At the same time
they start doing more sedentary activities such as watching TV or reading. As a
result, many girls tend to put on weight. A dieting/weight loss program for such
girls without helping them to modify their activities and life style is grossly
inadequate. This is what I mean by saying "in order to change a major habit, yo
u have to change the direction you had been going."
Similarly, when college students join the workforce, they tend to put on more we
ight because they are more likely to sit at their desk all day and drive their c
ar directly to the TV sofa. It is not just the college students, many young adul
ts transitioning to the world of work run the risk of becoming more sedentary. I
have been informing people about "Sharma's law of marriage" for years. Sharma's
law of marriage is that every man and woman puts on ten extra pounds in the fir
st year of their marriage. The reason for the weight gain lies not in their art
of cooking, security or marital content, but in the change of their life style.
Likewise, many middle-aged people feel "too old" for playing and exercising.
Puberty, transition to work, marriage, and middle age are some of the critical j
unctures for life style changes. Education about these turning points can preven
t many problems for the future. No drug, weight loss or diet program sells preve
ntion. They only sell "cure." Education and prevention of the problem is up to u
s. So, tell everyone you care about who is about to pass through these critical
junctures.
Twenty-five percent of all adults are not active at all. Only four out of ten ad
ults exercise at or above the minimum recommended level. Physical inactivity cos
ts more in terms of health related problems than does obesity. Why not promote e
xercise and physical activity! Health insurances companies ought to give free me
mbership to the YMCA or other exercise club if you go there for X number of time
s. It would be nice if they refunded part of the insurance premium for health ma
intenance activities. HMOs were supposed to be "Health Maintenance Organizations
" but, in practice, they became disease management organizations.
There are many unanswered questions because of our piecemeal approach. For examp
le, why a lot of people start and stop exercising repeatedly. Likewise, many peo
ple repeatedly start dieting or stop smoking and then go back to their old habit
s. Having started onto the right track, how does one stay on course? How does on
e go through the rough and tumble of life, the disappointments and setbacks, and
not lose the determination to stay on course? Unless we educate people in relap
se prevention, the failure rate will remain high.
Here is a well-kept secret: after completing a dieting program or a smoke cessat
ion program, those who continue to exercise on a daily basis for at least 20 min
utes have fewer relapses than those who remain physically inactive.
Think long-term. Think how you would maintain a good habit, month after month an
d year after year. The "highs" of weekend motivation seminars or package program
pep talks don't last more than a couple of weeks. How would you maintain your m
otivation to keep up the good habit? How would you keep your energy level and mo
tivation up when the voice inside says, "I've had it up to here. I don't care?"
The most effective way of reducing negative or unhealthy behaviors is to learn p
ositive and healthy behaviors first.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
21 Days to A Positive-Attitude Habit ARTICLE RATING
(6 votes)
Take charge. Get inspired. Help others. What are you doing to improve your own a
ttitude and renew your sense of purpose? It's a take-charge situation. Make it h
appen.
21 Days to A Positive-Attitude Habit
This may come as a surprise... but your attitude is more important than your apt
itude in determining your success in life!
Just how critical is attitude to achievement? Well, take a look at one of the gr
eatest inventors of the last two hundred years - Thomas Edison. Every time you t
urn on a light switch, you experience the result of his persistence in the face
of continuous failure.
Edison tried 10,000 times to get his light bulb invention to work, but failed ea
ch time. However, he had this to say about his lack of success. "I have not fail
ed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work."
You can learn to have this kind of outlook on life, but it needs to be purposefu
lly installed into your daily living.
You probably know it takes about 21 days to break a habit by replacing it with a
new one. If you are plagued with persistent negative thoughts toward life, you
can replace this mind-set with a new positive-attitude habit!
Here is a 21-day five-step program to change a negative attitude to a positive o
ne.
1. Take charge of what you're thinking.
This is a moment-by-moment decision that doesn't happen overnight. It's a habit
that will take some time to build.
How can you do this? Choose to think uplifting thoughts instead of discouraging
ones.
You get to decide what you think, which in turn determines how you feel. Become
aware of this and dwell on positive ideas throughout the day.
At first you may have to force yourself to find something positive. Consider kee
ping a journal and write down at least one good thing in your life each day for
three weeks. Then think about these blessings instead of discouraging thoughts.
2. Read inspirational material.
During this 21-day training period, fill your mind with good thoughts. The best
book of all to read is that priceless diamond of world literature - the Bible. Y
ou'll never know what wonderful results from reading it are around the corner un
til you open its covers!

3. Focus on others.
For the next 21 days make an extra effort to help other people. Concentrating on
assisting others will help you more than you realize. If you succeed in becomin
g wealthy but are poor in respect to your relationships, you will not be truly p
rosperous at all! So make a special effort of focusing on others during your 21
days of building your new positive-attitude habit. This will free you up to allo
w the butterfly of happiness to land on your shoulder when you least expect it.
4. Take care of your health needs.
It's hard to maintain a positive mind-set if you've neglected your physical need
s. So during the 21 days of your attitude retraining make an extra effort to eat
nutritious balanced meals. Not getting enough sleep will also be a tremendous h
indrance, so make sure you're getting adequate rest. And don't forget to get eno
ugh exercise. When you feel down, try to take a brisk 30-minute walk. You'll fee
l revived!
5. Learn contentment.
For the next 21 days focus on what you have and not on what you don't have. Live
in the present and enjoy your blessings.
Try to forget acquiring stuff for the purpose of keeping up with others. That on
ly leads to more anxiety. Be thankful for what you do have instead.
When going through difficult experiences - remember that adversity can be a bles
sing in disguise. You might learn some important lessons during those tough time
s - like Thomas Edison did. (I know I have.)
These lessons can turn into credentials that will enable you to help others when
they're going through tough times. So don't let negativity ruin your present an
d future. Instead, build a new habit of having a positive attitude. It will take
about 21 days to start seeing consistent changes in the way you think, but it w
ill be worth it!
Now choose the starting date for your attitude-renewal adventure and go for it!
How about today?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------
12 Proven Steps to Break ANY Habit in 21 Days -- Guaranteed!
By John Socratous
Article Word Count: 1330 [View Summary] Comments (0)
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STEP 1.
The first step in breaking old habits is deciding what new
habits you want to create with your life energy. Start asking
yourself these questions:
* What do you want your life to look like?
* What habits do you need to eliminate?
* What positive habits do you need to develop to make your
life look like you want it to look?
These desires must be realistic and obtainable. What is your
intuition telling you about what you should be doing?
Listening to your intuition is one of the most intelligent
things you can ever do with your life energy. Your intuition
always guides you in the direction that is perfect for you. It
is that small voice that is not affected by egos, past
failures, or other people?s opinions. It is your inner guiding
light.
In your journal, keep notes on what your intuition tells you
about the strategies and the resources that might empower you.
STEP 2.
Crystallize your thinking. Determine what specific goals
you want to achieve.
What habits are you letting go?
What habits are you creating in place of the old ones?
Your goals need to be specific, measurable, and realistic.
To do this you'll have to avoid nebulous thinking, such as "I
want to lose weight." What does that really mean? For your
subconscious mind to be able to serve you it must receive very
specific directions.
STEP 3.
Develop a sincere desire for the things you want.
Desire is the starting point for all achievement. It's the
greatest motivator of every human action.
Frequently, your mind is more motivated by pictures and
visualization than it is with words and written exercises. The
right side of your brain is where your creativity comes from,
and it thrives on pictures. Many times the right side of your
brain takes precedence over the left side, which thrives on
words. In the past, you may have just written words down to
reach your goals. Add this new dimension to your process.
Draw, cut out pictures, or take photographs of what you want
in life. Put pictures up on your refrigerator, your bathroom
mirror, or any place that will remind your subconscious mind
of your desires to reinforce your goal.
Every thought you have uses electrical energy to imprint a new
picture in your subconscious mind. The efforts of your
subconscious mind are to match the pictures in your mind with
reality.
The more you deliberately plant pictures of what you want, the
faster you will attract it into your life. It's very important
that you allow yourself to fantasize about what you want in
your life - let your imagination run wild!
To achieve what it is you want in life, you must think about
it. There are no limits except those we put on ourselves. This
is your life and you will be cheating yourself if you don't go
for what you want! You must feel your success before you can
manifest it in reality.
STEP 4.
Develop a plan for achieving your goal, and a deadline for its
attainment. The difference between a "wish" and a "goal" is
that the goal is written down. Once you have a clear picture
of what you want in life, your subconscious and conscious mind
can work together to achieve it.
When you prioritize and focus you can literally see what you
want; this gives you the power of concentration. Deliberate
concentration is like a laser beam - it can cut through any
obstacles in your path.
STEP 5.
Distinguish between goals and activities. A goal is the specific
end result you want to manifest in your life. Activities are those
things you do to achieve your goals.
Use the skill of awareness, and remember the goal. Don't get
stuck in the activities.
STEP 6.
Create deadlines for your goals.
Without deadlines your brain doesn't have a clear picture of
what you want created. Deadlines have a magical way of
motivating us to produce results.
First write your *one-year* goals on paper, then write down
all the activities you will have to do to reach each goal.
Start by asking yourself what is the very first activity I
must do to get started on this goal? Then write down each
following activity that will take you closer to the one year
goal.
STEP 7.
Break down the activities for each goal into 3 month groups
Ask yourself "What are the activities I must do in the first
three months to achieve my goal?" Write those down.
Then think about the activities you'll need to follow up in
the following three months. By breaking down the goals into
manageable, bite-size pieces, you'll feel more in control.
The secret is that this divide-and-conquer approach keeps
achieving your goals from becoming overwhelmingly complicated.
STEP 8.
Make YOUR goals YOURS.
Time for a reality check. Don't set a goal for yourself that
your spouse (or anyone else for that matter) wants for you.
Please revise your current goals to ensure they REALLY meet
YOUR needs, not someone else's desires for you. You will never
be successful achieving goals that are not motivated by your
own desires.
Moreover, don't compare your goals with other people's goals -
you'll always come up short. The reality is that we usually
compare our worst traits with someone else's best traits and
we can never win that way.
Let's recap these 8 goal setting steps...
* Step 1. Set realistic and obtainable habits you want to
create with your life energy.
* Step 2. Crystallize your thinking. Determine what *specific*
goals you want to achieve.
* Step 3. Develop a sincere desire for the things you want.
* Step 4. Develop a plan for achieving your goal, and a
deadline for its attainment.
* Step 5. Distinguish between goals and activities.
* Step 6. Create deadlines for your goals.
STEP 9.
Write your goals as if they have already occurred.
Try writing, "I now weigh ______" not
"I want to weigh ______".
This helps your subconscious mind to see the end result.
STEP 10.
Develop confidence in yourself and your abilities.
Stay "sold on yourself". Here are some techniques you can
use...
* Listen to motivational CDs and tapes daily in your car or
while commuting.
* Do your declarations daily, and control your self-talk.
* Tackle every activity without giving any recognition to the
possibility of defeat.
* Focus on your strengths instead of your weaknesses.
* Recognize and honor your personal point of power found in
this moment.
* Develop a determination to follow through on your goals
regardless of obstacles, circumstances, or criticism.
STEP 11.
Review your goals monthly.
The first day of the month is the perfect time to set up a
ritual goal-reviewing. This should be the time that you can be
honest with yourself on what goals you are really committed to
and how you can improve your strategies. You must also be
honest with yourself on what goals are only paper dreams if
you aren't really going to pay the price to achieve them.
STEP 12.
Have PERSISTENCE.
Persistence is the real key to successful goal achievement.
Don't allow yourself to become distracted with excuses about
why things can't be done. Excuses are the enemies of goal
achievement.
Instead of going through years of trial and error, you can have
the secrets handed to you on a silver platter.
It's packed with hundreds of incredible techniques and concepts
to bust even the worst habits, and it contains over 179 full
minutes of digitally recorded material, plus a 52 page workbook.
If you'd like to take advantage of the time, effort, energy, and money
that I've invested to get in my hands the rights to show you how to break
your bad habits in less than 21 days, as I do.
I highly recommend that you check out the world class PROVEN Habit
Busting System Coaching Program by America 's most highly-esteemed
and sought after human potential speakers, Lee Milteer.
Go and check it out!
About The Author:
John Socratous is an Internet Marketer and Researcher. He strongly believe that
the difference between 'failure' and 'success' it depends on our habits. Therefo
re, our habits have more power than our desires. After long negotiations with Le
e Milteer's team he finally got the legal rights to help others to achieve their
goals by promoting her proven system 'Habit Busting Secrets'.
Lee is one of THE most highly esteemed and sought after human potential speakers
and productivity coaches around -- in her 21-Day Proven Habit Busting System, s
he will take you step-by-step and help you lose bad habits for good!
For more info: http://www.overcomebadhabits.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=John_Socratous
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Discovery Health > Guides > Mental Health > Human Nature > Human Behavior
Is it true that if you do anything for three weeks it will become a habit?
by Julia Layton
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Inside this Article
Is it true that if you do anything for three weeks it will become a habit?
Habits: Make It and Break It
How Long to "Habit?"
Lots More Information
See all Human Behavior articles
More from Discovery Health
Mental Health
Explore Our Mental Health Guide, A-Z.
Habits: Make It and Break It
Photo courtesy of Iowa Department of Administrative Services
Most smokers will tell you it takes a lot more than three weeks of mindful think
ing to disrupt those synaptic pathways.
No one is entirely sure where the 21-day rule originates, but it seems to have f
irst been set forth in a book called "Psycho-Cybernetics." It's a self-help book
first published in the 1970s, and in it, you find out you can create or break a
habit in just 21 days.
The problem is, the evidence supporting the theory is empirical, or based on exp
erience, not clinical, or based on controlled experiments [source: Benefit]. The
theory caught on, though, and has been backed up in other forums since then. In
1983, for instance, a woman chronicled her efforts to start flossing and stop c
riticizing in a piece for "Reader's Digest." The article was called "Three Weeks
to a Better Me."
But does it really work for everyone, or are these just the experiences of a cou
ple of individuals?
The reality is, habits are easier to make than they are to break. If you repeat
a behavior often enough, those synaptic pathways are going to get worn in. The h
uman brain is a very adaptive piece of machinery. But does that take 21 days? Wh
o knows? Everyone's brain is different, and habit formation also relies on aspec
ts of experience and personality.
Breaking a habit is a lot more complicated, because while parts of those worn-in
pathways can weaken without use, they never go away [source: Rae-Dupree]. They
can be reactivated with the slightest provocation [source: Delude]. If you've ev
er tried to quit smoking, you already know this. You can go a year without a cig
arette, and then give in one time and BAM, the habit comes right back.
The best you can do, then, is to form a new, parallel pattern, like exercising w
hen you feel stress, rather than indulge the old pattern, which triggers "cigare
tte" in response to stress.
So what about these 21 days?