I want to take you on a journey. This trip doesn’t involve packing or hopping on a plane. It’s about getting up and creating good habits to put into action throughout your day, your week and your month. It’s already the last day of January. Has what you resolved to do this year already fallen through the cracks? Not to worry, I’ve outlined five ways, not rules, that you can put into action today to form good habits.
The How
Decide What You Want to Change
First, decide what it is you want to change. One of the things I wanted to start doing was learning how to breathe again. I know. It sounds funny, but not. There are times when I am sitting at my desk and not breathing. My shoulders are tense and I am hunching over. I would ask myself why it is that I am not breathing. So, I did something about it. Currently, I started following a YouTube channel called Yoga with Adriene. She has a 30-day yoga journey plan. This worked out wonderfully, since one of the things I set out to do was more stretching and intentional breathing throughout the day. It’s a habit that I have determined to implement in my life. Therefore, I set out to not only do this right now, but also in the future.
Plan How You Will Do It
Second, plan how you’re going to create a new habit. What I did for my yoga stretching journey was to make a plan on how to do this. The plan? Get on the blanket (I don’t have a fancy mat.) Soon after, I began to identify the triggers of what causes me to get tense and hold my breath. As soon as I was aware of this I began to just breathe. I have already begun incorporating this into my daily routine. Habits take time to form. As the saying goes, it takes 21 days to form a habit. One of the best ways to stay on track is to find an accountability partner to encourage you. It’s important to take your time, but stay on track.
Small Steps Go a Long Way
Third, take baby steps. Start small to gradually build up. Like my yoga journey, I had to start from the basics and gradually work my way up. This works the same way for forming good habits. So, It’s okay to fall (as I sometimes do practicing my moves). I wasn’t hard on myself when I fell over. I got back up and started all over again. Besides consistency counts more than perfection.
Stay the Course
Fourth, incorporate your new habit into your daily routine even on the weekends. The only way to make this habit become second nature is to purposefully put it into action. Equally important is to make it fashionable to boldly claim to yourself that it’s time to make room for new habits. Moreover, this could also help you wean off bad habits by replacing them with good ones.
Track Your Progress
Fifth, celebrate your progress. Whether you’re recording your progress in a voice memo on your phone or writing it down in a notebook, track it. It doesn’t have to be a hundred pages long. It can be a couple of sentences or one word describing how you’re coming along.
Remember that forming good habits is a journey. Take your time and in the meanwhile don’t be hesitant in giving yourself a pat on the back or a gentle hug.