The Simplest Way to Build a New Habit
Guess who’s back.
Back again.
Naveen is back.
Tell a friend!
Yes, I was away from Medium for a few months. It looked like I’ve abandoned my quest to write every day. It may have looked like I’ve thrown in the towel.
I didn’t.
I’ve been writing. Every single day on Quora.
Is the writing good? I don’t know. I don’t care.
Did I get paid? Hell, no.
Did it help anyone. Yes, I’m pretty sure each piece helped at least one person.
One other thing I know:
It helped me.
I didn’t procrastinate when I was writing on Quora.
I didn’t pause, wondering if Iwas good enough.
I just wrote, proofread once, and published.
The process kept getting easier. And easier.
At times, addictive even.
However, now, I’m back here, writing on a current favourite subject — Habits.
In the past 4 months, I’ve some of the underpants I collected to good use. I took action and managed to internalise 5 habits, while working on one more.
*bragging rights*
- 100 push-ups a day — Every. Single. Day. For nearly four months.
- Journaling (Mon-Fri) — Helps stay atop each day as I align myself with what I set out to do
- Ice-cold shower — Right after a hot water shower. Given it’s winter, NOT FUN AT ALL. It fucking hurts, but you feel great when done.
- Expressing gratitude — Nothing major. I simply write down 3–4 things I am currently grateful for (and I go beyond the obvious stuff like health, parents etc.)
- Ideation — Pick a topic and jot down 10 ideas relating to it. (e.g. 10 businesses you can start from home, 10 books I’d like to write, 10 ways to reach out to someone I want to connect with etc.)
- Meditation — I use Headspace, and meditate for 10 minutes. (This is the new habit I’m trying to build)
The best part — All of the above is done by 6 am. Thant means, by default, I’ve made it a habit to wake up between 5 and 5.30 am to take care of ME.
No work. No distractions. Just, ME.
Here’s the simplest way to build habits, that I’ve found to work for me.
Don’t Break the Chain
But first, some perspective.
Jerry Seinfeld’s advice (some dispute this fact, but it doesn’t matter) on how to write and keep creating material — Keep a calendar, and each day that you write a joke, put an X on the respective date.
Keep doing it, until you have a series of X’s.
Your job, now, is to ensure you don’t break the chain.
It’s not easy, but the technique is simple AF. Straight forward. No bullshit.
Once you build a bit of momentum, it gets easier, and gradually it becomes a habit.
My experience:
I downloaded this app → Habit Loop
I typed in the habit I wanted to build. At the time it was ‘100 push-ups a day’.
And then, every day, I’d smash ’em, and put a tick under the specific date.
Soon, I started feeling so guilty when I didn’t put in that ‘tick’, that I’ve hopped out of bed at night to finish them off.
Now, it’s second nature to me, that for a month, I’ve been doing them as soon as I wake up in the morning.
After 1 month, I started a new habit — journaling.
Repeated the process.
It’s as simple as that.
No complex formulas. No hectic plans. Just a calendar (or app) is all you need to start changing your life for the better.
Lessons learned:
- Focus on only 1 habit — It felt tempting to commit to 3–4 habits at once, but I soon realised that it was too overwhelming. The result — I failed in all. This is the reason why most New Year’s resolutions fail.
- Stick to it for 21–30 days — It’s a process. Respect it.
- Don’t give up if you screw up. Yes, there will be a day or two when you might fail. That’s fine. Don’t beat yourself up over that. Just focus on the next day.
- Start small — I started with 5–10 sets of push-ups spread out over the day. Now, I smash them in 2 sets of 50s or 60 & 40. Thrice, managed 100 straight push-ups. (*takes a bow*)
Over to you:
What habit are YOU trying to build?
How has your journey been?
What “hacks” have helped you in the past?
