Building Habits
With the COVID-19 pandemic causing us all to stay inside the majority of our days, it’s important to not lose insight about what we actually want for 2020. Despite how much pain we have experienced as a nation and in the world lately, this is the opportune time to focus on the things you have been meaning to try.
I have been blown away by the amount of people adopting new workout plans, cooking more, spending more time with family, and doing the things we always say we are going to do but never get to.
I like to say that God has a sense of humor. We all ask for more time to spend with friends, to work on our goals, to work on our job and once we get what we ask for, it’s often the wrong timing with the wrong circumstances. We cannot control many things in this uncertain time, but one thing we can control is what we do with our time.
Take this as an opportunity to get laser focused on creating and maintaining that habit you’ve always tried to create. New science tells us that it takes more than 21 days to build a habit. In fact, it takes 66 days for a habit to become automatic, and even longer for others.
James Clear, Author of Atomic Habits, states that…
every time we crave something, it is linked to a desire to change our internal state. We don’t crave the actual act of doing something, we crave the FEELING that each habit provides to us.
So, how can you pick up that habit of drinking more water or calling your parents daily?
1. Set up a trigger - Make it easy to remind yourself everyday of this goal and make it extremely hard to continue with an old, negative habit. Is it setting an alarm on your phone when to call your parents? Or is it having a large bottle of water with you at all times? Laying your workout clothes beside your bed the night before? Clearing all of the junk food out of the house? Get creative with these triggers.
2. Start small - Is your goal to exercise every day for an hour? Start with 20 minutes. If the habit is too hard to begin with, it will be difficult to stick to.
3. Change your language - First accept the fact that you are not a perfect human being. None of us are! Shift your mindset and language to positives. For example, change your language from “this is hard” to “it’s not quite right yet.”
4. Get an accountability buddy - Whether this is a coach, a best friend, or a spouse, having someone “in the thick of it” with you helps significantly.
5. Start before your brain talks you out of it - Adopt Mel Robbins’ 5-Second Rule. Our brains have a 5-second window to make a split decision before we talk ourselves out of it. For example, I roll myself out of bed at 5:30am, put on my shoes, and walk out the door to the gym before I even really know what’s going on. If I hit the snooze, I can already count that my entire day is going to be unproductive.
The real question is, how bad do you want it?
Most people run away from pain rather than running towards pleasure. In order to build a habit, the reward has to be far greater than the reward of staying where you are. If you have a certain identity, then adopting a new habit will change who you are as a person. If you have fear attached to this change, then it becomes far more difficult to adopt the habit.
Ask yourself, who will this make me? Do I fear the change?
Now is the perfect time to focus on self-care, because when everything goes back to normal, you will be ahead of the game.
Need help with your new habits?
I am offering a free discovery call with your specific goals.
