Building Positive Habits: How To Make Sure Your New Year Resolutions Stick
Everyone is talking about habits and they sound so promising: a way to break old habits that have haunted you for years or a shortcut to achieve your goals in no time.
But how do we build positive habits? Because let’s be honest, it can be challenging to make the switch from negative to positive and stay there. It’s so easy to slip back into old habits once we’re back in our usual routine. Let’s face it, no one is perfect and that includes humans with our human flaws.
In order for new habits to stick, you need tangible reinforcements of your change and constant reminders of the benefits of constructing new routines.
In this blog post, you will learn everything you need to know about creating positive habits and making sure they stick throughout 2023. Keep reading to discover ideas on how to get started with developing positive habits, helpful tips on creating good habits, effective strategies for breaking bad ones, and actionable methods that will help you create good habits sooner than later.
What are habits?
Past research has found that our habits shape our mind, body, and culture. For example, if you want to change your diet and exercise more this year, it’s important to establish a routine early on so you can make sure it sticks.
As humans, we have minds that are hardwired for habits. It makes sense that our brains are designed to do just about anything automatically. And many experts agree that one of the most difficult things in life is changing a habit or breaking one altogether because they have been built over time through repetition and experience.
However, some studies suggest that there is a way to break old habits by creating new positive ones. So how do we develop good habits?
The first step to developing good habits is by understanding what triggers them in the first place. The triggers could be external (such as social media notifications) or internal (an upcoming event). Once you know what your triggers are and why they trigger you, it will be easier for you to create new habits in order to replace old ones with better ones.
How to develop and form new habits.
It’s a hard truth that most of us will have to face eventually: new habits take time and patience. Rewarding yourself for forming a new habit is a great way to encourage your progress and maintain your interest in this process.
For example, you could reward yourself with something small like watching a movie or ordering pizza after every day you exercise. If you can’t find ways to reinforce the change, it’s unlikely that it will stick. As tempting as it is to get discouraged when you fail, we should remember that failure means learning more about what doesn’t work.
Take a look at the little details that didn’t work out and use them as opportunities to improve. For example, if you’re trying to build better sleep habits but it turns out that having too many distractions around bedtime prevents you from sleeping well, this would be an opportunity for you to try different strategies like using blackout curtains or playing calming music before bedtime.
Habits and routines: the key to forming good habits.
Routines are the key to forming good habits. They’re a part of daily life and once you realize that, it’ll be easier for you to build them.
If you want to develop positive habits, you need to make sure your routine is set up in a way that will help reinforce the changes you’re going through. Consider these two moments:
A) You wake up at 5 am every day and exercise before work.
B) You wake up just enough time before work so that by the time you get out of bed, you’re already full of energy and ready to go
Which scenario would be more conducive towards forming good habits? The answer is A because at 5 am when no one else is stirring around, there’s nothing but peace and quiet as far as your eye can see. So if your goal is to form new healthy habits, create a morning routine that gets you started in the right direction.
The 3 types of habits you should develop.
So how do you create good habits? The first and most important step is to identify the type of habit that you’re trying to form. There are three types of habits:
1) Replace: Replace your old habit with a new one that you desire.
2) Add: Add another behavior so that your new habit isn’t too difficult to maintain.
3) Combine: Take two or more different habits and combine them into a new one.
The best way to understand what kind of habit you should adopt is to answer the following questions about yourself:
– What are the current habits that I have?
– What am I trying to achieve in 2023?
– What are my motivations for wanting this goal?
– What behaviors will help me achieve it?
Tips on developing good habits.
In order to develop good habits, you need to establish the routine that you want. For example, if you want to read more books, then you should plan for at least 30 minutes of reading for every day. If you want to exercise regularly, then make a schedule and stick with it.
This is one way of breaking a bad habit because it will reinforce the sense of accomplishment both mentally and physically.
Additionally, it’s important that your new habit is not so hard that it’s impossible to do in the beginning but gradually becomes easier when done on a consistent basis. For example, if you want to start running more, don’t start running marathons in the first week!
Most importantly, you have to track your habit progress. Get a great habit tracker to stay on top of the new habits you are developing.
Strategies for breaking bad habits.
There are many methods that can be used to break a bad habit in order to replace it with a better one. One such method is the ‘noticing and naming’ technique, which encourages you to notice when you are engaging in a bad habit and then name it as though you were talking to someone else (e.g. “checking my phone right now” or “eating junk food every day”). This will help you recognize what triggers your old habits and avoid them so that you can replace them with new ones.
Another way to get rid of your bad habits is through external stimuli. If your old habit was very easy for someone else to understand, like chewing gum, then finding something else that is similar but more healthy would be an effective strategy for replacing it with a good habit. For example, if chewing gum is something you enjoy doing but want to stop, find another type of chewing activity that could replace it like brushing your teeth or doing mouth/jaw exercises!
Conclusion
With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season, it is easy to forget about your New Year’s resolutions. It is important to find a way to stay focused and keep your resolutions for this new year. By following these few strategies, you can make sure your goals stick and you will see positive changes in yourself in 2023.