8 Easy Steps to Incorporate a New Habit in Your Life
Picking up bad habits seems easier since childhood but picking up habits that will benefit you forever and maintaining it seems to be a mighty task. Many of us have a list of unaccomplished goals and as time flies, we even start assuming that those goals were not meant to be realised. Even though we convince ourselves to forget about these goals, but somewhere we regret for not taking right actions at the right time.
But most of us have been setting goals the wrong way until now. The right method to attain your goals is by breaking them down into smaller steps and these smaller steps into a new habit and this new habit into a series of successes. Building important goal oriented habits can possibly help you achieve your goals.
Thinking that it is rubbish and impossible? Everyone is sceptical for the first time. But it all takes some effort to read till the end to discover these 8 easy steps to incorporate a new habit in your life and attain your goals:
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Keep Your Focus On One New Habit
The process of forming a new habit begins with focusing on just one single habit at a time. For developing this habit, you need to understand what how well you can dedicate yourself for this new habit and how feasible is it for you to be consistent. In our routine, we endeavour in many new tasks daily and for this we allocate a certain amount of will power. Since we already have diminished will power, channelising your will power to this one new habit improves your chances of drawing positive results from it. If you try to take up multiple habits, then allocating your attention and allotting your will power to each of them will definitely result in multiple good-ups.
Next, identify what one habit you must get hooked to? It must be very important one and you must be extremely passionate about it. Once you know which habit you must incorporate in your life, find ways to become adept in the subject and you will automatically love to let the habit fit in your routine life.
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Get Hooked To It For Minimum 30 Days
Getting a new habit added in your routine should not like those hypothetical resolutions you make every new year. Making commitment to get the habit ingrained in your lifestyle in essential. Some people say that it takes around 21 days to develop a habit, while some say it may take around 65 days. But the truth is that it entirely depends upon the person and the habit to determine the time to build it. While some habits may effortlessly fit in your routine, some may demand your extra time and attention. So before getting disappointed or thinking to ditch the whole idea of building a new habit, stay committed to the habit for minimum 30 days and then take your decision.
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Adjust This Habit To Your List Of Consistent Habits
Building a habit out of temporary motivation or desire can soon make the fire to achieve the goal fade away. To make your new habit an integral part of your life forever, you must accommodate it amongst the habits you already follow. Instead of complicating your day’s schedule by completely changing it, take baby steps in bringing this new habit as a natural part of your routine so that nothing goes compromised or disturbed. For example, if your new goal is to hit the gym, then plan in a way that you will be changing into your gym clothes as soon as you reach home. You can even start sleeping in your workout clothes so that when you wake up, you get motivated to go for jog and workout. The basic idea is to find your most consistent habit and let this new habit conjoin.
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Take Smaller Steps
It is never a cake walk to bring a new habit deliberately in your lifestyle and thereby, taking smaller steps and focusing on smaller accomplishments should be your main motto. Moreover, if you get dependent on your motivation levels to keep you moving ahead in building this new habit, then you will become inconsistent when you are not in the right mood. This is why taking baby steps to let the habit get ingrained in your behaviour can create an automatic sense of commitment. Since you have started to incorporate this new habit for the initial 30 days, you cannot afford to miss a single day. If you have thought of developing the habit of exercising, then start with waking up earlier and doing some warm-up exercises for 10 minutes. Smaller steps motivate you to move further without creating boredom.
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Know Your Obstacles
The road to success is never an easy track and attaining success after crossing stubborn hurdles makes the achievement even more pleasurable. Similarly, every new habit can be successfully implemented when you know what your obstacles are and how you can beat them. These stumbling blocks can hinder your progress and can demotivate you to back-off. But when your obstacles are time, costs, space, weather, self-consciousness, etc., you can take preventive actions to actively overcome them. Planning for building your new habit is incomplete if you don’t make crucial plans to find out a path, even through ardent difficulties.
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Be Responsible For Your Habit
When you have made plans and have been religiously following it, it becomes extremely pertinent that you track your efforts. Evaluating your performance is the next step that shows how well you are grasping this all new habit. The best way to be accountable for your new habit is by sharing information about the new habit. Share it with your friends, family, colleagues and peers. Many theories have revealed that a person is likely to follow his plans with complete dedication when he becomes aware that he is being observed by others.
To track your progress, update about the endeavours you have initiated for your new habit on social networking sites and online chat groups. When you keep your new habit a secret, chances are high that you will quit it whenever you feel like. But when others know what you are up to currently, the fear of embarrassment and the zeal to prove yourself to others will drive you to be focused.
Recommended: 5 Simple Tips to Bring Your Goals Into Habits
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Celebrate Completion Of Every Small Milestone
Kicking out boredom from your new schedule where you are moving cautiously and struggling to make your way through all odds is necessary. Since you have decided to take baby steps in getting the habit ingrained in your routine, start rewarding yourself on important milestones. Small rewards such as watching new movie, spending a day out with friends, dining at a little expensive restaurant, etc would be suffice to keep your motivation levels soaring. Incorporating the fun element amidst the consistent efforts of developing a new habit will improve the way you are progressing.
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Strengthen Your Identity
Being dedicated and consistent will only help you actualise your goals. When you perform small actions everyday without compromising on your efforts, you will gradually develop that habit, which will be a part of your identity. The best way to keep up with this new habit is by making it a reflection of who you are. You must start believing that this habit is centred on what you desire. It must demonstrate your behaviour, mindset and notions and it must have connection with what you have always wanted to do. When this habit matches your internal desires, there is nothing that can stop you from permanently incorporating this habit in your lifestyle.
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Snehashree Bhat
A young writer who loves to pen words from creative perspective. Passionate internet surfer, a versatile homemaker and a person who finds pleasure in adopting healthier and positive changes in her persona. An enthusiastic feminist who wishes to make serious changes in the stereotypical thought process of the society via the voice of her words.