Habits govern our daily lives, but Understanding how they take hold in the brain could help you pin down the habits you want to keep and eliminate the ones that don't interest you. Let's face it, we all have a bad habit that we would like to break, or a new habit that we would like to start, such as exercising early in the morning or eating a healthy lunch or taking a lunch break every day.
While following in the footsteps of others may not be the key to your success, forming a new habit or getting rid of an old, unhealthy one is the key to happiness and success. Next we are going to give you some tips so that you learn to master your habits and that you begin to take control of your life.
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Keeping track of your behavior can help you change your behavior. If you are trying to eat healthier, keep a food diary. If you are trying to walk more, use a step counter. If you are working on a project, tracks the number of hours you spend on the project each day.
Simply by keeping track of something, you tend to improve your behavior. Keeping track of your behavior keeps you honest with yourself about how much you are really working to change your habit.
Build a base
Setting up your life to be successful in creating a habit requires a solid foundation to start with. This foundation is made up of healthy eating and drinking, getting enough sleep, and exercising. All of these things can give you a boost of energy and improve your self-mastery, both of which are necessary when trying to form a new habit.
Planning
For most people, putting something on a schedule makes you more likely to do it. If something can be done at any time during the day, it will likely happen in no time. If you say you want to make daily exercise a habit but don't put it on a schedule, chances are you find yourself at 9pm remembering that you didn't exercise today. Putting something on a schedule eliminates decision making and turns it into a commitment.
Responsibility
Most of us do better when we know someone is watching. This is why support groups for those who want to lose weight or AA for alcoholics work so well.
Support groups create external accountability that helps us pursue our goals. No matter what new habit you want to create, you can establish your own responsibility group at home, with friends, or at work. Just knowing that someone is going to ask you if you did "x" today will help make your new habit a priority.
From now on you will have more possibilities to create or abandon habits if it really is what you want. Although remember, the most important step you need will always be willpower ... then, you will achieve whatever you set your mind to.