Sticking with good habits can be a real challenge but once habits do settle in it tend to benefit us forever.


How can we turn our good intentions into lasting habits?

Habits are a very clever trick of the brain to help us save energy by automating tasks it is the reason why we look both left and right before we cross the street and why we lock up the door behind us when we leave a space or why we brush our teeth just before we go to bed. These are things that we usually don't even notice that we are doing because when habits are really entrenched it lets us live a large part of our lives on autopilot and that frees up so much mental energy for all the other things that we can do instead. If you ever tried implementing a new habit you might realize it's really hard to make it stick. There are tools and techniques that we can use to make sure that we implement our habits in an effective and sustainable way.
"It's the simple daily habit that is truly the secret sauce to your success".

                                                                 -Think like a Boss


Building some habits i.e., the actions that we perform as part of our habits tend to be pretty small but because we repeat them over and over again their effect really adds up and so we can have a really profound impact on our lives.
Let's say for example that we get in the habit of cleaning up our desk once we're done working for the day this might set us up for starting the next day free of any distractions and then as a result we might be slightly more productive the next day and even though the immediate effect might seem super small or maybe even just insignificant .If we do this every single day over the course of a year it could mean a huge productivity boost. On the flip side a messy desk full of distractions might decrease our productivity when looking back over the long term. This is why it's so important to make sure that we set up our habits for success so that we let the time do all of the hard work for us.
“Good habits make time your ally bad habits make time your enemy”.

                                                                       - James Clear
Identity forming habits

We are usually either told or we feel like we have to come up with really big goals for ourselves like saying I want to run a half marathon by the end of the year and if we focus on outcomes like this I think we do tend to sometimes get temporary achievements, which is great. And that might take the box but if we actually want to fundamentally change our behaviour it's more effective if we focus on our desired identity instead saying I want to become a great runner. Once we have decided what kind of person we want to be, we can then start building the habits that form this identity and to know what those habits are we just need to ask ourselves. Like what would this person do? What would a great runner do? We might come up with things aside from running frequently. Things like a good runner would probably eat well or implement a recovery routine or stretch frequently and then once we have established.
When it comes to implementing identity-forming habits it is really important to make sure that we repeat these habits over and over and over again and to do this we can implement the following techniques
Specific
When we want to get a good habit off the ground it is really important that we are specific in our intentions and this includes knowing the where, the when, the how often, and these are things that we can write down.

Pairing with an existing habit

Another strategy that I find really helps and works is if we pair the new habit we want to build with an existing habit, something we already do. So, for example when I wanted to start to make a habit out of journaling I told myself what I do it every morning at my desk after I had brushed my teeth and so by linking the new habit of journaling is paired with the existing habit which is brushing my teeth .It made the time and place very specific and that made it a lot easier for me to follow up on my intentions.
Mindset

To make sure that we even want to implement a new habit I think we need to make sure the experience is as pleasurable as possible. Our mindset is what determines whether or not we are going to enjoy something. A really powerful way to create a positive mindset is just by using some positive language in our internal dialogue. It's the shift in mindset that makes all the difference in how pleasurable the experience is going to be.
Obstacles

To make sure that we don't drop out before a habit even before it is the time to settle in, we want to get rid of any obstacles standing in the way of us repeating that particular habit.
So let's say for example, You want to build the habit of meditating daily. The one obstacle that you face is a noisy environment. In this case we can make sure to opt for a serene environment. By taking a little action beforehand we are making sure that the habit itself isn't the obstacle. Our philosophy is to try to make things simple, short and sweet because if we make things more complicated than we tend to see the habit itself as an obstacle.It's so much more effective to perform a small action often rather than a perfect action sometimes.
Reward

If we can reward ourselves right after we do our desired habit or action the chances of repeating it are gonna be way higher because new habits tend to reward later and they might not usually feel so good in the moment whereas with bad habits, they tend to feel really good in the moment, but eventually we pay a price for them. So by rewarding ourselves directly at the end of our new habit we're reinforcing the behavior that we want. This is a concept. I kind of played around with a little bit to get in the habit of exercising. More often by ending my workouts with a nice long stretching session while listening to some uplifting music just made me feel super happy and it was that kind of blissful moment at the end of a workout that made me look forward to doing it again the next time.
Eventually, I feel like habits become intrinsically rewarding especially once the long-term benefits start showing but until we get to that point I think having a little bit of external reward can really help to make sure we keep at it.

Environment
Our environment plays a huge role in the formation of our habits like if we watch TV on the couch and then we try to pick up a new reading habit, and we also want to do that on the couch. It might prove to be a little bit difficult sometimes because it can be distracting. But if we were to instead try to read in a different space altogether then over time this new space becomes associated with the new habit which can then make it easier for us to get into the flow of reading every single time we sit there. Apart from picking a good location for building a new habit, it's also really important to make sure that we surround ourselves with the right kind of people whether in person or digitally because it's human nature to kind of adjust our behavior to fit in with a crowd or the people that we surround ourselves with and so if our desired habits are the norm for our surroundings then adopting those habits become a lot easier.
So all in all habits are very powerful because their effects tend to add up over and we can actively shape our habits by making sure that we repeat them again and again and to make sure that we keep at it. 
It really helps if we can be very specific about our intentions, if we can adopt a positive mindset, removing any obstacles making our habits short and simple so that we can follow through with it. We want to reward ourselves at the end and set up our environment for success and then we can let time do the rest of the work for us and if you are interested in learning more about building a solid foundation and framework for good habits I highly recommend the following books:

Atomic habits by James clear.

Think like a Boss by Savitha Madhavan

Better than Before by Gretchen rubin





QOTD: What good habits are you excited to try out?