Building Habits: Tips For Creating Better Habits In Your Life
Do you have time to commit fifteen minutes a day to building a new habit?
My early education and skillset in time management and goal setting was completely uprooted when I learned just how important habits are.
It began with a question within myself after my life had been uprooted last year. The question in focus was, “Why?”. This wasn’t in relation to Simon Sinek’s fantastic novel on “What’s Your Why?”.
Why was I trying to accomplish a series of same goals that I had already achieved prior?
Goals are important for setting a vision of what we want to accomplish, either for ourself, a project, a business, an exercise routine, etc. However, the engine for goal setting is recognizing habits that do not serve us and habits that propel us to our goals.
Habits are in every aspect of our lives, consciously and sub-consciously. When I ask you, what is the first thing you do in the morning when you wake up? Whatever you thought of, is your habit.
If you brush your teeth right when you get up? Habit. Do you check your social media right away? Habit.
Habits impact us on a personal level and a professional level as well. When you arrive first thing in the office what do you do? Do you go straight for the coffee or answer emails?
Leaderships and management are also impacted by the habits of organizations as well (more on this in a later blog). If you’re a manager at a restaurant, what is your routine when you clock in?
If you’re a smoker, you have habits that cue you when to smoke. As a former smoker myself, I’m all-to familiar with those cues. You’re facing a two sided battle when you decided to quit smoking: addiction and cues. (You got this).
- Resources for when you’re ready to quit smoking: https://www.cdc.gov/tobacco/patient-care/quitlines-other/index.html
A book that I recommend is “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg. The breakdown of the habit is quite simple. Cue, routine & then reward. That reward mechanism is really important to understand the process in our brain.
- For those leading organizations and teams, I highly recommend this book as well as “The Coaching Habit” by Michael Bungay Stainer*.
So the question is, how can we use habits to propel us into the goals we wish to achieve for ourselves?
That’s one small step for…(You)
- ) Start very small. I want this task you create to take less then a minute. I started with making my bed every morning. It seems simple but this quick exercise in the morning taught me how easy it is to make something a habit.
- ) Find something that takes fifteen minutes to complete and do that daily. Is your goal to lose weight? Walk for fifteen minutes. Is it to publish that book? Write for fifteen minutes a day.
- ) Identify what areas in your life you would like to increase better habits in. Finances? Mental health? Social? Relationships? Think about what areas of life you would like to improve and think about what you can do for fifteen minutes a day to improve those areas.
When I started losing weight (again) I made it a goal to walk fifteen minutes a day. Six months later I’m almost thirty pounds lighter and this stemmed from making a choice to walk fifteen minutes a day. Additionally, I’m trying to quit smoking, I’m more conscious about what I eat and I fit better in my old clothes. All stemming from making walking a habit.
Habits are a central part to our being, even if we do not recognize this within ourself. Our habits shape our lives daily and the future we establish for ourselves.
So what habit do you think you could develop for a better you in fifteen minutes a day?
If you need help unpacking some bigger goals/habits. I got you.
Thank you for reading!
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Check out my other blog relating to habit building here: https://medium.com/@marcacerv/make-habits-not-goals-why-habits-create-the-foundation-for-goals-994c90f56240
