What are Habits?

Habits are a type of self-fulfilling prophecy. To make a habit out of something, we have to do it over and over again. With every repetition, the behavior or the decision becomes more ingrained in our minds. This system’s beauty is that once it is established, we don’t have to think about it anymore and can move on to other tasks or decisions.

Habits can be good and bad. Most of our day is spent creating these behavioral patterns (habits). To change them, we must understand the process used to create them in the first place.

Good habits are formed through a 3-step process:

1. Environment
2. Routine
3. Reward

By controlling these three components, you can influence your behaviors and systematically create a new habit.

Before we analyze the details, let’s first talk about what a habit is.

A habit is a habitual pattern of behavior that has become automatic and difficult to undo. That most fundamental human needs — food — once acquired, never wastes away; our habits never go out of season. Our habitual actions create the world in which we live and act, and thus these things are essential to our well-being. We must learn to live with them, not against them.”

Let’s take a look at three ways that you can start habit formation.

1.The first way you can get someone to form a habit is by showing them a reward. Once they get into a habit, they will associate the reward with the action.

2. The second way is to associate a bad habit associated with other actions (even if they are good). This is because by doing this, you create associations between the bad action and the good action. These associations are strengthened by pairing good behavior with something that evokes an emotional response.

3. To form a habit, you need to establish a routine. We are indeed creatures of habit. If you want to alter your habits, you have to set up scenarios where the new behavior will get reinforced through rewards. The good thing about this is that when we know what we need to change our behavior, it gives us a way to deal with our bad habits.

My goal in this article is to show you how ideas and actions get turned into habits and how you can begin to change your bad habits for good.

What are Habits?

A habit, routine, or custom is acquired through frequent repetition or physiologic exposure that subconsciously occurs.

Although habits may be seen as a subset of routines, routines are defined as patterns that “link” things together. Habits are much easier to form than routines, as they require less effort.

A habit is an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary. A routine can also be described as a set of behaviors consistently and repeatedly, even though the individual may not have been consciously aware that this is what they were doing. A habit is a more frequent behavior pattern. Examples of a habit include brushing your teeth, taking out the trash, eating breakfast.

Routines are done at specific times, but not necessarily regularly every day. An example of this would be working at 8 am on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.

A routine is an established series of activities or operations in your life or other words; it is a behavioral pattern that occurs at regular intervals throughout your daily life. Routines can be as simple as brushing your teeth, washing your hands, and using the restroom. Routines may also be a more complex set of behaviors considered an identifiable pattern and require much conscious attention. An example of this would be going to work at 8 am Monday through Friday.

Habits and routines will continue to occur until you create new behavior patterns consistent with whom you want to be as a person and how you want to live life. There are many reasons why we don’t change our habits:

1.”It’s too hard.”

Change is hard, but it doesn’t have to be. Yes, it hard to change your life, but at the end of the day, if you don’t do what needs to be done then, you’ll remain to be unhappy. It’s your choice.

2.”It takes too long.”

 As humans, we prefer instant gratification over delayed gratification. The idea of dedicating 4-6 weeks to improve a habit or live a healthier lifestyle is a little insane for someone who doesn’t have a lot of free time in their schedule or who’s not seeing results quickly enough. You’d have to have a devote time and patience to be able to follow through on most of these suggested changes.

3.”They don’t work.”

 There’s no such thing as a quick fix or a magic potion to help you change your habits, but what they’ve done for me is accelerate the process, increase my strength and stamina so that I can persevere through tough periods, and get the results I want from my efforts. I’ve also found that most of these methods work in combination with each other and that you should expect some skepticism about the usefulness of one method without a track record first.

If you want to change your habits fast, it’s going to take a lot of effort. But if you want to make a long-term change, then what has worked for me is working slowly. I think it’s better to start slowly and then build up momentum rather than starting with huge efforts and quitting soon after. However, if you want short-term gains, then there’s no reason to wait. You can go for it.

When I first started, I wrote more than ten times per day. It was pretty hectic in the beginning (I was still practicing at the same time), but I did it with my eyes closed and with no plans at all.

After a while, however, I thought, “Hey! Wait a minute! The amount of time I’m spending here is not paying off in any way. What if I focused my efforts in a way that will help me change and grow as a person?” This was when I started to develop new ideas for my writing and began to write down some of the ideas.

Once you get better at writing every day, you start to see patterns emerging. You then begin to see things in your life that you need to tweak. For example, maybe you noticed that your headspace would be negative every time you went out with friends or family when the night was over. You don’t like that, and you know you need to change it, so you decide to start planning your day better. You start mapping out what you want or need to do so that you can relax and enjoy yourself when the night comes.

After a while, I started getting more clarity about what I wanted in my life (like having more fun and enjoying my time with my family). So I began working on this area of my life as well.

Every time you have a new insight and a new goal, you’ll need to develop a new set of strategies to help you drive your changes. This is what I did every day for two weeks until I started to see results.

You don’t have to be scientific in your approach. You have to develop a new set of tactics that you will use to help you smash your goals and dreams. That way, if you keep getting better each day, then you’ll have a better chance of reaching them in the long run.

 We start by doing what we love to do and what we’re good at and then work our way up to harder things. If you start with something you hate doing, it will be challenging to continue in that area. For example, if you’re afraid of the water and decide to start swimming, it’s going to be incredibly hard for you to continue because your brain will fight it. So instead of fighting this fear and stubbornness, you should start where your brain is comfortable.

For your brain to get used to doing something new, the best way I’ve found is small steps at a time. For example, if I wanted to learn how to swim, the first thing I would do is go to a pool and practice with some friends. Then I would keep practicing at home with my brother.

We’re afraid to change because we have this idea that something new has to be harder than what it was before. But that’s not true! The best way you can overcome this fear is by breaking things down into small changes and taking baby steps in each direction.

Think about it like this. If you wanted to know how to drive a car and decide to take your own time, would you rather want to know how to drive one or two years from now? If you choose two years from now, what would benefit from taking your own time?

The answer is no one and nothing! If you take your own time, it’s just going to take that much longer for you to stop depending on someone else. If you take your time, you’ll be at the helm of the ship for the long haul.

Take one step forward, and then keep going. Make each step bigger than the last. Your new habits will become second nature to you, and they will happen without thinking about them.

You’re going to want to start small. If you want to change something about your life, then start small. When I started writing every day, my goal was to write for 15 minutes per day. I made it a point that whenever I sat down at my computer and opened up my favorite program (Scrivener), I would write for as little or as long as I could during that session. The only rule was that whatever time I wrote during that session would be the time spent on something important.

That’s how you need to look at things. If you want to get stronger in some area of your life, then start small by doing one pushup per day. If you want to learn how to play a sport, start small by learning it first.

You need to have a point where you can see the big picture, but what will help you get there is taking one step at a time. If you do this, then the steps you take will build on each other and get bigger and better every time.

Some of the biggest successes in the world started with one idea. I’m sure that at first, these ideas seemed like a long shot to them. But they got to work, taking one step at a time until they reached their bigger goals. They didn’t make it big overnight! They took things step by step until they got there.

The same is true for you. Take an idea and make it small so that you can start applying it to your life. Take one step forward, even if you have to do it backward. Don’t let yourself get stuck on the problems you have right now because they will be challenging. Instead, focus on creating solutions and tackling the problems with your strengths instead of your weaknesses.

The Beginning

Learning how to create a new habit takes time and work, but it’s definitely worth the effort. You’ll want to start by having your goals set out before you create your new habits.

Start by giving yourself a time frame to work with and work within that, creating your new habits. For example, if you wanted to go running every Saturday morning, set out a time to plan to go running and stick to it.

You’ll also want to think about how important your habit is going to be for you. Is it going to be important for your health? Your happiness? Your self-esteem? All of these are things that you need to think about when creating a new habit. You need to take them into account and make sure that they will be important for you.

Once you’ve decided on your starting point (something important) and how important it will be (important), let’s start taking each step one at a time so we can build up the habit.

Start small and then keep going forward. 

You’re going to want to start small. If you want to change something about your life, then start small. When I started writing every day, my goal was to write for 15 minutes per day. I made it a point that whenever I sat down at my computer and opened up my favorite program (Scrivener), I would write for as little or as long as I could during that session. The only rule was that whatever time I wrote during that session would be the time spent on something important.

That’s how you need to look at things. If you want to get stronger in some area of your life, then start small by doing one pushup per day. If you want to learn how to play a sport, start small by trying out for the junior league.

You need to have a point where you can see the big picture, but what will help you get there is taking one step at a time. If you do this, then the steps you take will build on each other and get bigger and better every time.

Some of the biggest successes in the world started with one idea. I’m sure that at first, these ideas seemed like a long shot to them. But they got to work, taking one step at a time until they reached their bigger goals.

They didn’t make it big overnight! They took things step by step until they got there.

The same is true for you. Take an idea and make it small so that you can start applying it to your life.

Take one step forward, even if you have to do it backward. Don’t let yourself get stuck on the problems you have right now because they will be challenging. Instead, focus on creating solutions and tackling the problems with your strengths instead of your weaknesses.

You’re going to want to start small, but be willing to keep pushing yourself forward each time. Giving up is not an option, so it’s best to start small and keep trying to go forward.

This is how you get from where you are now to where you want to be. You take one step at a time!

Most of us have experienced this all the time. When we want to quit our bad habit, we can’t do it because the first thing is to try.

What you need to do is to start small and keep going. Don’t expect that you will be able to give up smoking overnight or even in a week. Think about it like this; if you try quitting cold turkey, you will likely relapse right away.

If you are trying a new diet, which I highly advise against, don’t expect that you’re going to be able to eat just one thing for the rest of your life. It would be best if you started small and keep going.

If you are trying a new exercise routine, don’t expect that you’re going to be able to run a full mile right away. Think about it more like a long run. You will start slow and then find a method of keeping yourself motivated to continue long after the first bit of running has passed.

Every time you have an issue with your habit, work on making it small. Instead of focusing on that one big goal, break it down into small steps.

Instead of taking the whole bag at once, try taking a small piece at a time. Learn how to get through your cravings by keeping your eye on the long-term plan and not the short-term goal.

When you do this, you will find yourself with more willpower because you aren’t threatening yourself with all the problems at once. Instead, you are focusing on each little problem as it occurs instead of focusing on them as a whole.

There you have it. The first strategy for changing your habits is to break them down into smaller steps so that you can stick with them. Don’t be afraid to give in because the worst thing that could happen is that you’ve tried and failed. At least then, you have a goal where you are trying to go and what it will take to get there.

In Summary

When you’re trying to create a new habit, it’s best to work step by step. You want to make sure that every step is something easy and fun for you.

Another thing that you want to make sure of is that your new habit doesn’t feel like work. If it feels like it’s going to take a lot of willpower for you to do it, then just skip it. Do something else instead.

And lastly, don’t worry too much about the future. You want to make sure that you’re enjoying your life now and doing the things that matter. If you keep working on your new habit, it’s more than likely going to happen naturally.

So, take the time and make an effort to change your habits by making small steps. Break them down into smaller parts so that they are easy to stick with and you have a lot more willpower to do so.

Don’t worry about the future; just enjoy the journey while you are taking it.