No, I don’t think so.
Did you ever observe small children as they learn to walk? They’re falling over all the time because their sense of balance is not fully developed. Walking is a brand new habit they’re just starting. And as they practice it they keep falling, sometimes in tiny ways and other times in bigger and more painful ways.
Yet they keep getting up, keep trying, keep walking.
And that’s exactly how you should think of habits — as a collection of small steps you make over time.
When you skip a step here and there, it doesn’t make your goal any less important. The key is to keep your eyes on the goal. Stay focused. Don’t awfulize and make a big deal of the lapse. Keep moving forward.
As you are building out your daily habits, there are a few things that can help you stay consistent. I’ll share some examples.
👉🏾 Keep it simple.
Every habit we’d like to acquire needs self-discipline, time, and repetition. You may want to start reading more effectively, or stop eating a big dinner, or get more sleep. The key to keeping a good habit stick is to make it simple so you don’t find it intimidating, exhausting, and overwhelming. You can start with tiny steps. Set a timer for 15 minutes and see if you can read 20 pages of a book. Have a snack in the mid-afternoon so you’re not starving by dinnertime. Start going to bed a bit earlier than usual to give yourself time to de-stress and relax.
👉🏾 Maximize willpower early in the day.
When we start the day, we are often overwhelmed with the amount of things we need to do, so we tend to procrastinate on some of those things and postpone them for later in the day. That goes for new habits too. But what a missed opportunity! Think of it this way. We all have a finite amount of willpower that takes us through the day, so if you want to focus on your top priority (your new habit) work on it early. Practice a new skill before lunchtime while you’re still energized and focused on your top goals. That could be writing one paragraph of a short story or finishing one chapter of a textbook while jotting down notes. Don’t leave this activity for late at night when you’re mentally exhausted.
👉🏾 Stick to a schedule.
This part is critical. It’s much less likely you will make any habit stick if you just practice it once or twice a week. Why? Because if you do, your brain will start thinking this is an optional activity, something you just do on the side. Instead, you’ll get better results if you starting doing it more frequently so you brain gets accustomed to it and eventually adopts it as a regular part of the day. How can you do this? Schedule it in. Find a block of time (preferably earlier in the day) to work on your habit so that you’ll be successful at it. Mark it in your daily planner, or add it to your mobile phone monthly calendar, then set a notification to remind you an hour or two ahead of time when you should practice it.
👉🏾 Instead of saying, “I can’t,” say “Why not try?”
It’s a small and subtle shift in your attitude but it can reap big results over time, especially if you keep practicing it. You know the feeling when you’re trying to do something new and it’s just not going well? The first instinctive reaction is to say, I can’t! And that’s a human reaction. But the key here is to replace a negative statement with an open-ended and positive one. When we say, Why not try? we give ourselves more power to make a positive change in our life. We leave some space open for possibilities, instead of shutting the door in our own face. It’s a matter of seeing things as doable and realistic, instead of making them appear abstract and impossible to achieve.
👉🏾 Resist the urge to quit.
The writer Seth Godin said, “Never quit something with great long-term potential just because you can’t deal with the stress of the moment.” It’s important to stop for a minute and identify the stress you’re feeling and where it’s coming from. If you’re stressed out about keeping up with a new habit, figure out why. Maybe it’s not easy to stick to your diet if your partner wants to eat pizza three times a week. Maybe your ego finds it tough to deal with not being the best in a kickboxing class you recently participated in. Fight the urge to give up when things get tough. Know the difference between what feels hard to do right now and what’s good for you in the long run. And think ahead — there’s that goal you’re working towards and you will feel proud of yourself when you reach it!
Nela's Blog 