Many people right now are looking into their lifestyles before self-isolation and noticing things about what they were doing that they wanted to work on. For some, they are taking the opportunity to tweak their nutrition. Some might be looking for a way to change their exercise habits. Some it may be sleep. Whatever it is, statistically, not everyone will stick with their habits and there are a few reasons why that happens.
1. You start by taking on too much at once.
2. Your habit is too big for you right now.
3. You’re driving for only a result.
4. You’re not changing the environment that you are in and you’re not changing your environment to optimize change.
5. Assume small changes don’t add up.
This week, we’ll break down why these things are so important for your new habits to stick and how you will be able to maintain them once life continues as normal once self-isolation is over.
1. You start by taking on too much: This is one of the most common mistakes people do when starting new habits. They think that you have to do more to meet their end goal faster when this really causes you and your body to get stressed out and you start to fall off on what you promised you were going to do. The best thing to do is to pick one thing and get really good at it. Whether it’s something as small as putting on your gym clothes, not even leaving the house, that will slowly start to lead to getting in a few minutes at the gym, then to 30, then to your goal.
If you are finding this a struggle still, pick a habit that will let your life fall in line with it. An example of this is a habit of weightlifting. It gets you to the gym, it will force you to adjust your nutrition, fix your sleep schedule, and increase energy. Other examples are starting monthly finances, general exercise, and making your bed every morning.
2. Your habit is too big: Think of it this way. When you first start a new habit motivation needs to be incredibly high then as you work through, you don’t need as much motivation to keep it going. That big push to make your own food after a long day instead of just ordering in is hard to start, not finish. This is why it is best to start small, because it is easier to start
3. You’re driving for a result: This is the opposite thing that you should be doing. Humans are naturally outcome focused, even marketing teams of big companies spend ridiculous amounts of money to keep you buying their products even though you know they are not healthy for you. But, that doesn’t work for goal setting. Once you hit those 100 pushups, what then? Are you doing to make a new goal? And when you hit that, what then? Hopefully you see where I am going with this. New habits drive new results and a habit is a process. There are four essential phases of a habit:
The cue, which triggers the initiation of a behaviour because it is trying to predict a reward.
The craving, which is the driving force of motivation behind the habit. Cravings are individual and are linked to a desire to change your internal state.
The response, which sounds like what it is. This is how you respond to the craving either through force or action.
The reward, which satisfy and teach us things.
4. You’re not changing the environment that you are in and you’re not changing your environment to optimize change: if you want to eat healthy but your cupboards are filled with processed food, you’re never going to reach your goal. Similarly, distractions like notification alerts, questions, tv shows/videos, and other distractions make it impossible to complete tasks. So, think of small things to do to change your environment; put your phone in the other room while you’re working, turn off push notifications on your laptop/computer, have an old school digital alarm clock as your alarm instead of using your phone, you can even rearrange your apps on your phone so apps you are trying to use less are harder to find.
5. Assume small changes don’t add up: 1% changes every day are more effective than pushing for 100% right at the get go. Think of it like this, when training a pet, you don’t automatically go to training them to do jumps through hoops, you start small and fundamental, simple skills like sitting and potty training. Even then, you don’t expect it to go perfectly and reward them as they get closer to the end goal. So, why aren’t you doing that for yourself? Patterns of small behaviours lead to significant and life changing results. So, make one choice every day that will better you and get your towards your end habit, even the ones that seem insignificant.
However, there is one more thing that is important to creating new habits. What is your identity? If you don’t personally identify with the habit that you are trying to create, it won’t stick. If you start by writing one page a day, you are now a writer. If you run half a kilometer a day, you are a runner. But what is important is that you need to start with what you want to be. If you want to be a weightlifter, then what habits do you associate that identity with? If you want to be a conscious consumer, then what habits you associate that identity with? This is where you start creating your new habits.
The information is this post is provided by our Nutrition coach, who is Pn1 certified, combined with ideas and thoughts from the novel Atomic Habits by James Clear. For more information on Atomic Habits, check out jamesclear.com