Discipline and routine can lead to an infinitely better life. Every successful person has some sort of routine that allows them to achieve their goals. Routines are built off of habits and habits themselves can be the tough to master. Though tough, developing habits is not impossible. There are several techniques one can implement to master the habits of their desires.
How To Develop A Habit
The key to developing a habit is to remove as much resistance as possible. Break down the desired habit into small doable steps and make each step intentionally easy to do. Procrastination and fear of failure are deep-seated emotions that often hold us back.
Break Free From Perfectionism
Both procrastination and fear of failure stem from perfectionism. To take action in life and to get things done, you will have to overcome perfectionism. Nothing is perfect the first time around. Nothing is perfect even the hundredth time around. Perfection does not exist. Instead, you can thrive to be very good. Keep reminding yourself that perfection does not exist. The little details you scrutinize, are barely noticeable to anyone else.
Identify The Habit You Want To Achieve
First, get clear on what exact habit you are trying to build and why. Say you want to get into the habit of working out. How many days a week? How long will the workout sessions be? What type of workout? Get specific.
Say you want to study more. Why do you want to study more? What academic outcome are you aiming for? How many days a week will you have study sessions? How long will the sessions be? What study methods will you use?
Writing out your habit, the specifics of that habit, and the associated goal, can help you curate a clear vision. This is something you will be incorporating into your routine. Knowing exactly what you will be doing will help decrease the resistance of actually doing it.
Identify The Steps In That Habit
A habit is not a singular act. It is often composed of many smaller tasks. Identify the entire sequence of steps it takes to enact that habit. Oftentimes, not knowing where to begin or how to start can inhibit us from pursuing the habit. For instance, if you want to work out regularly, the smaller steps would be deciding on a workout routine, changing into workout gear, going to the gym, prepping a workout snack, and so forth.
Start By Pursuing The Minor Steps
It is tough to start doing the entire sequence from day 1. Instead, complete smaller steps and then build up as you acclimate. For example, you want to become more diligent on studying. Jumping straight to studying will cause you to crash and burn. You will do it a few times and then give up. Instead, pick a study time and stick to it. Start off by just reviewing your notes at that time on those days. Once it becomes routine then incorporate some light studying. Build up from there.
Track Your Progress
Another way to hold yourself accountable is to track your habits and their progression in a journal or planner. For every week, you enact a desired habit, give yourself a small reward on the weekend. You have to tie pleasure to your pursuits to consolidate them. Create a reward schedule. It should not be too frequent, but not too spaced out either.
Make Your Habit Enjoyable
To make yourself more inclined to adopt habits, you have to make your desired habit an enjoyable experience. This can be tough to do for the more mundane habits. But try to make the experience as pleasant as possible. For example, if you are trying to get into the habit of studying more often, pair the act of studying with pleasant experiences such as soft background music, a cozy desk setup, snacks, a favorite drink like coffee, and your favorite stationary. This will turn studying into an experience and you won't mind studying more often. Say you want to workout regularly. Organize a playlist that will get you pumped, get a membership at a nice gym or fitness class you will actually enjoy, wear fitness gear that you will feel cute in, and get a post-workout snack that you will look forward to.
The majority of life is composed of dull and mundane moments. Small acts of embellishment and creativity can make those moments so much more, making life more fulfilling.
Curb Your Emotions
Oftentimes, we are looking to develop a habit because it will lead us to a certain end goal. Most end goals are meant to change our life and there is a lot of emotional baggage that can be attached to that. When pursuing a habit, one can feel guilt, feel tendencies to self-sabotage, and experience a negative inner dialogue. Working through emotional baggage is a thorough topic in itself. The short answer is that you have to curb your emotions to some extent. Emotional discipline is key. Wallowing in self-pity will always hinder your progress.
Build Self-Trust
When we procrastinate and avoid pursuing our goals, the goals themselves are not the real loss. The loss of self-trust is the true damage. Pursue your desired habits routinely because it will foster self-trust. You will trust yourself to get things done and you will then start to trust your own capabilities. No one really knows what they are doing. Don't let the feeling of being unprepared hold you back. Take action so you can then in turn build trust within yourself.
Identify The Positive Impacts Of Previously Built Habits
When a certain goal or outcome is in the distance, it can be tough to comprehend it's positive potential. Reminisce on the positive habits you already have and how they benefit your life. This will serve as pure motivation. Sometimes, you have to see positive consequences in action to believe in their possibility. Keep reminding yourself of all that you have already achieved and all the positive facets of your life. What you focus on grows.
Wrapping Up
The act of building habits takes practice within itself. The more habits you develop and reap the benefits of, the easier it will get to build up habits. This is a practice, that if started early can benefit you greatly across the span of your life.
What else would you add to this list of techniques?
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