Three Steps to Cultivate A Habit

Develop running habits from three aspects: Sense, Accomplishment, Environment.

Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay

Excuses OUT!!!

Fred DeVito once said, “If it doesn’t challenge you, it won’t change you.”

Challenge is not only a way to a better life, but it brings a lot of personal growth. The change comes in many ways, such as acquiring new skills, cultivating a habit, and dropping old ones.

Here we’ll focus on developing new habits into our life.

Most people always want to get into the habit of exercise — take running for example — but sometimes a life-changing commitment is just too hard to keep.

If we are developing a running habit and focusing on what’s important in life, try the following three steps to keep yourself on track: sense, accomplishment, and environment.

Sense — Data digitization through list and planning

First, write down what habit you want to build. Consider what kind of exercise are you going to do, is it running, going to the gym, or swimming? Instead of “I want to exercise,” set your schedule specifically. If it is running, then decide where to run, how long to run each time, how far to run in a week, etc.

The consequences of writing down a vague goal are that we will encounter many uncertainties. For instance, there will be no place to run on rainy days, or it is too hot to run. While making choices definitely consumes a lot of energy, excuses pop up. However, when everything is written down, you will spare yourself the effort of adjusting and devote yourself right into exercise.

Second, keep a record of what you have completed. Review whether your progress has reached your goal. Reflection is crucial to the whole process. If needed, make some appropriate adjustments to the schedule.

Now, you have a specific schedule and you record the process. In this way, we can practice and see the feasibility of them, and you will have a deeper insight into what you are resolving to do.

Accomplishment — Enjoy the process

J.M. Barrie said, “It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness.”

Everyone likes to do happy and rewarding tasks. The same is true when it comes to cultivating a habit. At the beginning of doing something, it’s almost always difficult. Therefore, people will need data that indicates our self-growth to keep motivated.

Take me for an example, I have been running consecutively 30 minutes for 30 days. One day, if I didn’t feel like running, it would break my streak. However, considering that the 30-day record created is far more difficult than running 30 minutes today, I will have a stronger motivation to run and keep the record.

The longest active run streaker, Jon Sutherland, the first American to reach 50 consecutive years of running at least a mile every day. I was quite impressed by this. Here are his top tips:
 1. Just go out the front door.
 2. Find a club, coach or a partner that will keep you consistent.
 3. Have goals.
 4. Do every thing you can to support your running ‘habit'.
 5. Enjoy the people you meet.

Just GO OUT! Just Do it! As the record increases, we will also get a better sense of accomplishment.

Environment — Create the environment

“ You may not be able to change the environment, but you can choose to create the environment. ”

The environment consists of network and reality.

Network

When someone is doing something around you, you will naturally do it. The same for habits. When you see the picture that someone exercises at the gym on Instagram or Facebook over and over again, the motivation of “I should go exercise” will be stronger and stronger. Find a partner who wants to build a similar habit or has social media (FB, YT, etc.) with relevant information. It can make you more motivated.

Reality

In real life, make it easier to immerse yourself in the environment. For example, if you want to build a running habit, you can go to the park, sports field, or gym in your free time. Or even buy a yoga mat to work out at home. If you want to cultivate a reading habit, go to a library or a bookstore. In short, creating your own environment can build the habit.

Finally, while making a habit is hard, having to stick to them is harder. If you are already there, good for you. If you are not, consider being consistent at what you want to do.