How to Form a New Habit, Effortlessly

Changing your behavior always brings about the hope that things will be better. Choosing to build positive habits is always a good start. But then again, building on a new practice is often the most challenging step to take. 

The formation of new habits opens your mind to new perspectives, but it also presents itself as a challenge. Knowing that you need to instill new, better habits is always a good start. But implementing these changes is another challenge on its own. 

The familiar challenge people are facing is the beginning of building that new habit. It's too hard to do. You look for motivation to go through it, but then it's never enough. Soon, motivation fades. 

You tell yourself you need to focus, but willpower alone won't be enough to see you through too. There will be times when you are tired, and you'd be feeling weak. 

Then the question is, how do you build a good habit?

The best way to build a good habit is by telling yourself you can make it happen. 

Here are a few strategies and techniques you can use to help you build better habits and make them more achievable.

Focus On One Habit At A Time

Developing good habits is not a walk in the park, but it's not impossible.

Implementing a new routine to your day to day activities is challenging, but you don't have to make it even more complicated. Whenever you think about wanting change, you fantasize about making a 360-degree turn in your life. You lose all focus on the most critical aspects of the things that you want to change. 

If you want to develop good habits, you better change your behavior. No matter what the goal is, making the change helps boost your productivity, improves your emotional health, and level up your physical health. But all these require a significant amount of effort. If you try to do them all at once, you are surely going to fail. You will achieve nothing.

When you are just starting something new, eliminate all the other options that you may have. Focus on one habit and move on to the next once you get a good grip on what you are currently working on.

When you put your mind and heart into the new habit, you are targetting something specific. Start working on something that's general. For example, you can get yourself to move more in order to lose weight. Get yourself moving first. And when you've become comfortable at it, you can start targetting the improvement of specific muscles in the body. 

Build On A Chain Of Behavior

Daily habits to improve life can easily be instilled in your life, especially if you want to make it happen. A current routine or behavior can trigger all new practices that you want to incorporate. The trigger can come in various forms, whether you gain pleasure from it or not. 

The triggers to your good behavior play an important role in how successful you will be in incorporating the new habit in your life.

When you want to wake up early, you set the alarm.

The sound of the alarm is your trigger. It reminds you to wake up early. 

When you want to exercise, you ask your friends to remind you about it. 

Getting yourself to work out thanks to your nagging friends is always a good start. A good push is all you need to get rid of all the extra weight. 

When you want to keep a healthier diet, you make healthy choices a bit more visible. 

Healthy foods are often the option when the unhealthy ones are not available. Make them accessible at home, and you will surely find yourself eating healthier alternatives.

Setting up the trigger is one of the most challenging parts of starting a new routine. When you forget what you need to do, like failing to set the alarm or your friends not calling you in time for the exercise or you can't afford to buy healthy food, that's when the problem begins. 

The best triggers are those that are already part of your routine. It should be an existing habit.

Some of the best triggers include getting out of bed. You know that it's part of what you always do, so it would be a great reminder of what needs to be done next. 

Remember that the goal is to link your new routine to some old one you are used to doing. This explains why any form of motivation won't work on you. Motivation can be a good trigger, but it often does not work because of the wrong timing. It usually fades away too. By the time you want to start on the new habit, you're no longer as motivated as when you started. 

Always Have A Backup Plan

When it seems as if carrying the new routine is not going to work, then you must find a way to do something else. 

For example, if you fail to eat healthy foods, then explore a new habit instead. Perhaps you can engage in a more intense exercise routine. Doing so will help you achieve your overall goal. 

Having a backup plan is an excellent way to achieve a new habit. When you do come up with the plan, remember that it will work only because of these two things:

It will remind you what you will lose if you don't get that habit into your system.

It will help you get back on track as quickly as possible. 

Accountability is what will make you stick to your plan. It is easier to get back on track when you know you are responsible for something. 

A successful behavioral change can only happen if you set your sights on your overall goal. It will be a bit of a challenge in the beginning, but you can do it. The results will also vary from one person to another, depending on a variety of factors. Just set your eyes on the change that you want to implement, and you will surely get what you want in time.