How Do You Create Better Habits — SOLVE IT!
This article goes over the many techniques of habit-building in your life!
There are so many ways to work toward better habits in your daily life. There are so many books, advice, tips, and articles out there that do the same. I have condensed everything I have read and heard about into this article.
This article is inspired by my previous article — Why You Should Build Better Habits where I talk about the motivations behind building better habits.
Look into that before you venture into this article to understand the weight and importance of implementing better habits into your daily life.
Let’s begin!
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” ~ Will Durant
In my opinion, this quote is central when we start the conversation about habit-building. Repetition and routine have the connotation of being boring and useless when it is not. Excellence, like Durant mentions, comes from repetition and routine. We are what we feed ourselves everyday. It comes from practicing and being repetitive with your actions.
One factor that goes well with this is the aspect of time. You need to give yourself space and time in order for you to practice your act and get better at it. The people you meet who are ‘successful’ in your perspective have only reached that point because they put work into those repetitive actions that make them better at what they want to achieve. The necessary space and time to build habits will be available for you to repeat depending on how you craft your routine.
Repetition doesn’t need to be scary, daunting, or drab. It is about choosing the right acts that work for you in order for you to repeat them enough times that it becomes natural to you.
- Sandwich new habits into ones you already do. This will make it less overwhelming and really help push you in the direction you want to go. When you are building on top of your foundation, your structure will be studier. So, sandwiching your newer habits in between the other layers of your life will really help you.
- Create systems — divide your life into areas. Like the mind palace of Sherlock Holmes, your mind is your power. Organize the other areas of your life and create systems where it all comes together. For example, I have three systems — a personal system where I do all my hobbies and manage my passive income, a writing system where I work and organize all my writing projects and goals, and finally a health system where I take the time to become healthier and manage my dietary restrictions and medications. These help me analyze and create spaces for me to add new habits to make my life fuller and more productive.
- Discomfort = stop. There is a difference between forcing and trying. Getting out of your comfort zone is good, but too much force can make you crawl back into your shell. Motivate yourself, reward yourself, take small steps — don’t immediately dive into the deep end.
- When we repeat an action over and over again, it takes on a life of its own. Habits can become second nature, transforming you into a person who not only does but also becomes what they do.
- Concentrate on adding positives rather than removing negatives. If you want to eat healthier, for example, instead of eliminating something like your favorite candy, replace it with something healthy, such as a daily serving of fruits or having a salad. Adding something positive rather than focusing on removing negative things and going cold turkey will help you achieve long-term achievement.
- Make the habits small, sustainable, and achievable. The smaller they are, the less daunting it is for you to achieve them. The more sustainable your habit is, the longer you can practice it and continue it.
“Energy is usually at its peak during the first part of the day, which means you should be completing habits that inspire or excite you about the day ahead.” ~ S. J. Scott
Let’s walk through a day — you wake up, do what you need to freshen up, eat, probably start working, eat again, maybe take a break or do something to fill up the time, probably then it’s dinner time, and then eventually sleep. Basically, activities are divided into morning, afternoon, evening, and night. Everyone has the opportunity to fill up these times with things they wish to.
There’s two things to keep in mind: fill up your time with habits you love and with habits that refine your craftsmanship. In simpler terms — personal and professional habits. Habits you love are fun things, hobbies that let you relax and unwind — such as going out or hiking. Habits that refine your craftsmanship are things that you practice for your self-growth, who you want to be or your career — for example, if you want to be a writer or you work as one, you need to find time to write and finesse the writer in you.
Now, as the day goes on, your energy will decline and the tendency for you to stop or give up increases; craft your day smartly where you consider all these elements.
“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” ~Jim Rohn
Knowing what drives you every day is important for you to keep going. There is a reason why you want to be better. For example, I want to get better because if I do then I will be more productive when I work, which will lead me to be happier and I get to experience life. This motivates me to continue, my long-term goals and my dreams push me toward better habit-building so that I can create a healthier lifestyle and truly unlock the way I live my life. So, find where your energy lies, and why do you do what you do.
Another way to keep your motivation going is by creating systems of rewards for yourself. Don’t be afraid to treat yourself when you have small wins. If you wrote an article and posted it and got 30 likes instead of 100, those 30 likes are still a win. Celebrate the fact that you got those likes and the fact that you actually hit the post button and worked on your piece. Use that to motivate you to write your next article. Seeing and celebrating the fruits of our labor is important for our motivation. So take the time to savor it.
Motivation can also be ignited into your life through a community. Find family members, friends, colleagues, online forums or groups that can really support you and nurture your energy. When you work alongside like-minded folks who are supportive, that can really help you synergize and see through the dark times. Use them to keep you in check, to see if you are sticking to your habits and so on. Use them to see through the demotivation and hard days and let it help you continue on your habit-building.
“Successful people are simply those with successful habits.” ~ Brian Tracy
Success is a self-defined work. Ask yourself — what do you need to do in order to become successful on your own terms. For example, in my terms, one of the things that will make me successful is when I am able to move out of my parent's house where I can be free and independent. In order for me to do that, I need to be able to work, balance my responsibilities and collect enough money to be independent. My habits consist of maintaining a good headspace so I can continue my job confidently and be efficient when I work. I made a habit of journaling, going for a run, going to kickboxing classes, cooking dinner, and gaming. These activities help me unwind and let my mind wander a bit. My job can be very demanding and living at my parent’s house can take a toll on my mental health. In order for me to be productive, work well so that I can keep earning money I can be independent — I needed to build habits that let me have healthy days where I feel happy and active, rather than lazy and dull. These habits have improved my workflow, it has helped me grow as a person and these habits have allowed me to do more things I like because of how organized and disciplined I have become as my mind is healthier.
Consider your situation, find what habits you need to create for yourself in order for you to be successful, and craft them into your day.
Some of us have more demanding jobs, some have too many responsibilities to handle every day where they don’t have the time to do something fun or some of us are already doing the things we want to do where passion and career are the same, while for others they might be chasing their dream while doing a job. Consider these situations, you know yourself best.
The point of this article is to highlight how and why you need to consider these things and find the time to better yourself. I hope it invoked something in you!
SOLVE IT! is a series by Selena Fonseka where she picks a question and tries to unravel the many layers of knowledge, solutions, and ideas it contains. Follow to keep up with her other two series: DEFINE IT! and QUESTION IT! where she dives deeper into topics thick with content!
A little bit about me as a writer: Being a Creative Strategist at Lock&Stock, a mobile app that promotes digital wellness, really inspires many of the things I write about. I am passionate about many subjects and Medium has become my main outlet to express my words. In my spare time, you’ll find me buried in either fantasy novels or books like Atomic Habits or Sapiens, where I gain a lot of the knowledge I share. I hope you enjoy my content! Follow and Subscribe for more!
