Why is setting good habits important?

Imagine how much you could achieve in your life if you discovered power tips for setting good habits and sticking to them. You could make so much of your life and could live it the way that you want to. It all sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? Many people though, suffer from the inability to set habits that they can stick to.

Building habits and sticking to them can be tricky. I am sure that most of us at some time or another have set out with the best of intentions when it comes to starting a new routine, giving something up, exercising more, eating or drinking less, only to break the habit almost as soon as it has started.

Why is it that we find setting good habits and sticking to them so difficult?

Why is sticking to a new habit so difficult?

One of the simplest reasons that applies to most people with this question is that they make their new habits too complicated.

Take losing some weight for example. The desire to lose weight should be straightforward. You set your goal, start eating healthier food, exercise more and hey presto, you have reached your ideal weight, you have formed healthy eating and exercise habits along the way and you are feeling so much better about yourself.

The problem is, that for many by the end of the first week, all of the good habits have been broken and you are left feeling disillusioned about your goal.

The reason is all too often, the goals that we set ourselves are too life-changing and are doomed to failure from the start. If you set your goal too big, the habits that you will need to make to get your goal will seem too overwhelming, leaving you mentally with no option but to break your new habits.

How to set good habits 21 tips

Want to start setting some good habits and actually stick to them? Follow these 21 steps below.

1. Make your habit simple

If you want to make a habit and stick to it, make sure that it is simple in the beginning.

If you want to start exercising to get fit and healthy, don’t decide to start training for a marathon, this is just doomed to fail. Instead, start building small amounts of exercise into your daily routine.

Start with just five minutes a day of walking or doing something that you find enjoyable, dancing, skipping, and each day add an extra minute. Do this for thirty days until you have formed a positive habit around exercise. Don’t compare yourself to anybody else, set your own pace and you are more likely to stick to it.

2. Develop a plan in case you fail

Even with the best intentions in place, sometimes it is easy to relapse and break good habits, especially in areas such as diet.

The trick here is to make sure that you have a plan in place in case you do break the habit.

In fairness, it is exceptionally difficult to set a new habit and never break it, after all, it is programming your mind to act in a way that it doesn’t normally act and this sort of mental retraining takes time and effort.

Instead of being hard on yourself and acting as if you have failed, if you have a plan in place in case of a lapse, then it will be so much easier for you to get back into the habit.

If for example, you eat the wrong food one day, tell yourself that the next day you will eat healthier. That way you have your plan in place and you will know exactly what you are going to do if you break your eating habit.

3. Choose one thing and stick to it

Making new habits and sticking to them is hard so don’t overload yourself with trying to do too much. Choose one habit at a time, that way you are much more likely to stick with it, feel better about yourself and be in a stronger position to achieve more good habits.

4. Attach your new habit to a trigger

This is a really useful step to take if you are trying to create a healthy habit from an unhealthy place, such as giving up smoking.

If you find that you are more likely to have a cigarette when you have your first cup of coffee in the morning, then form a new trigger in this situation that will become your new habit, for example, clean your teeth instead.

This will improve your health in many ways and will give you something to do in place of smoking. Over time, this will become a new habit and you should lose the desire to smoke.

5. Reward yourself

Factor in treating yourself when you have stuck to your new habit for a certain length of time. It doesn’t have to be anything enormous, just something that gives you pleasure. A reward is a great way to make you happy and this will release dopamine into the system

This will make you feel good and this is a habit that you want to create. The more you feel good the more likely you are to stay the course with your new habit.

6. Don’t take too much on at the beginning

When you start to set your new habit, make sure that you start at a level that you can cope with. If you take on too much at the beginning you are far more likely to struggle or even fail. Try chunking, small steps to build your habit until it becomes a natural part of your life.

7. Think about the obstacles that may arise and how to overcome them

Before you begin, get clear in your mind any obstacles that may come up and how you will cope with them if they do.

If you are prepared beforehand you will be less likely to be thrown off course and will be more likely to build successful habits and stick to them

Whenever you start a new challenge, you can often come up against issues that can knock your confidence or belief in yourself. Preparing yourself mentally will make your habit-building far easier.

8. Combine multiple habits together

If you are setting habits, look to see if there are any that you can combine. A natural fit would be swapping diet choices when you are trying to develop a keep-fit habit, or going to bed earlier if you are looking to improve your overall health and well-being.

Combining multiple habits can make it easier for you to stick to your new lifestyle.

9. Get yourself an accountability partner

When you have someone to be accountable to you will find that your ability to be successful will be greatly improved. It is far harder to break habits that you are setting for yourself if there is somebody who is helping you.

This is why working with coaches is so beneficial when setting new challenging habits. If you have someone to answer to you are more likely to stick to your plan.

10. Don’t hold yourself to perfect standards

Life is never going to be perfect and you are never going to be perfect so if you set your standards too high and demand perfection from yourself, you are doomed to fail.

Set realistic expectations if you want to achieve and accomplish the habits that you set yourself.

11. Do something every day

If you want a habit to become ingrained into your mind and your life then you need to do something every day towards it. There is no point in setting yourself a new habit and then only trying once a week to make it a reality.

If you are trying to get fit, do something every day towards that goal, whether it is exercise, healthy eating, meditation or an early night.

Make your new habit a part of your daily routine to be successful.

12. Set up audio reminders on apps and mobile devices

Until your new habit is ingrained firmly in your mind, use reminders in audio devices to help you along.

A simple reminder on your phone to drink more water or on your FitBit to get up and move around can help cement your new habits.

13. Eliminate temptation from your environment

Eliminate temptation from your environment before you begin.

If you are trying to set a new healthy eating habit, for example, then it is a good idea to get rid of any unhealthy food from your cupboards that you could be tempted to eat.

This will make your life much easier until your habit has become set in your mind.

14. Commit your habit desires to your journal

Write down in a journal what you are hoping to achieve. This is a very simple yet very effective way of setting your habit and sticking to it.

Once it has been committed to paper, you have almost made a declaration to yourself that you are going to accomplish your new habit.

15. Be clear in your mind about what you intend to achieve

Set a clear plan in your mind about what you would like to achieve. This is where setting a SMART goal can be very helpful.

Having a Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-relevant plan can help you create your habit and see it through until it becomes firmly ingrained.

16. Allow yourself to miss one day but not two

There are always going to be times in life when despite your best-laid plans, a spanner is thrown in the works and you miss a day of your habit setting. It could be a birthday party when you are setting healthy eating habits for example.

Admit to yourself that for one day you are going to slip but then make sure that the next day you resume your new habit. If you let it slip for more than one day you could discover yourself back at square one.

17. Make your habits fun

If you are going to set a new habit, it needs to be something that you’re going to enjoy.

Beginning new habits can be a challenge at the best of times but even more so if it is something that you dread doing.

Make it fun and you are more likely to set it through.

18. Develop positive daily routines

Make your day as positive as possible by setting good routines. A set time for waking and going to bed, having food at home and cooking regular, healthy meals.

Leaving mobile devices out of your bedroom at night. Setting positive daily affirmations. Small positive daily routines can have a big impact.

19. Surround yourself with positive people

The people that you surround yourself with can have a huge impact on your chances of success when making a new habit a part of your routine. Surround yourself with positive people who will celebrate your achievements, help you when the going gets tough who will always have your best interests at heart and cheer you on to succeed.

20. Eliminate all excuses

Cut out excuses straight away. If you start making excuses as to why you can’t do something, you are going to fail.

Excuses will always mean that you are giving yourself a reason to not be successful in the habit that you have set for yourself.

21. Measure your progress

Measure your progress as you go along and celebrate your wins and achievements. Measuring your progress can give you a real lift psychologically.

If you have been struggling at any point when you see the progress you have made you will be far more likely to continue.

It will also help you to see how far you have left to go.

Final Thoughts

Start following these 21 power tips for setting good habits and you will discover how you can change your life and achieve the goals that you want to reach.

Once you have realised that starting new habits can be rewarding they will easily become part of your routine.

Look at your daily routine and see what habits you have in it actually serve you.

Do you get up early and exercise or meditate in preparation for your day ahead? Do you make sure that you spend quality time with your loved ones?

Do you follow a healthy diet and try to eradicate stress from your life?

The more good habits that you can have in your life, the better and more rewarding your life will become.

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Comment and share if you have any thoughts on setting good habits and sticking to them