Habits are not erased from our brain, but it's great to know that habits can be forgotten or replaced. So what are we waiting for?
New Year Resolutions work.
Many of us set goals at various times in our lives, especially in the new year.
Whilst reaching goals is not easy, the good news is, that a research study found that people who made new year resolutions, were more likely to achieve the goals, than goals set at other times!
What are your new year's resolutions?
Habits provide direction for us to move toward our goals, and at the core is your “Why”
1. Start with your “Why”
Why is at the core of habit change. This creates the purpose for your goals and underpins your plan of action to get you there.
Why would you like to be healthier? What would better health mean for you? Write it down.
2. Set intentions & visualise your future self
What is the health vision you have for yourself? What are your goals?
Your vision sets the tone and direction for the year ahead. It may help to have a word which creates a feeling for the year.
Visualising the life you want to live is a powerful strategy for making your healthy-self a reality. This can start today.
3. Learn from past lessons
What lessons have you learned which would benefit you to bring forward? Reflecting on what worked, or didn’t work, helps prevent repeating mistakes and enables us to learn from them.
You are investing time in working out how to create a healthier lifestyle.
You have worked out what kind of foods and lifestyle changes are needed for you to reach your goals. What's next? ...
I've made my goals, now where do I start?
You’re pumped and ready to make changes to your lifestyle so you can enjoy being a healthier you, but you’re wondering, how do I get there? How do I set goals and objectives then find ways to reach them?
Habits are powerful
Habits are at the core of making sustained change.
Goals bring meaning to the habit.
Strategies and systems to drive action, empowering us to work toward the habit change.
We need habits!
· We make around 35 000 decisions per day!
· We rely on habits to make most of these decisions
· Habits allow us to do things automatically, freeing up the mind for other decisions
· Habits help drive positive actions, even when we feel unmotivated.
· Healthy habits have the ability to replace unhealthy habits.
· Healthy habits will be more successful if they are built gradually.
Flex your change-muscle
You shape your health journey by reframing habit cues
This extends to any habits, not just the ones which are health related.
Every time you add a new habit, whether big or small, your habit muscles are flexed.
Understanding how to change Habits
It’s challenging to change a habit, but it can be done!
Habits which help us to function effectively are handy. Sometimes we need to change an un-helpful habit to reach our goals.
We know what we need to do, but habits are entrenched and changing is hard!
We get what we repeat.
It’s useful to look at why the habit was formed and why it keeps being repeated.
What’s getting in your way? Is it time, the environment, the routine or the reward for doing that thing you’d like to change?
Motivation - let the habit do the work
Motivating yourself to include healthier habits can be overwhelming. Switching this around so that the habit does the motivating, not you, makes it more achievable.
Key Habit-change strategies:
Add more: adding a small habit before attempting to replace a habit
Crowd out: adding a small habit, then gradually phase out the old one
Habit Stacking: Adding a habit to an existing habit: eg: add taking a water bottle when walking out the door. (James Clear)
Tiny steps: starting small builds your strength for change. (BJ Fogg)
Interrupting the habit loop: (Charles Duhigg)
Accountability buddy: set a time to chat with a friend/family member about habit change strategies or plan action together
Diary. Writing down the action is powerful and empowers you to make sure it happens.
Making habit change happen
Habit change starts with your “why”. This is your purpose for wanting better health and drives the goals & objectives
Identify the cue. What triggers the behaviour?
What can you do to interrupt the habit loop?
A plan on how to reach the goals is key to attaining them
Plan of action, which includes strategies and systems, which are incorporated into the routine, to create the new habit. Without a plan, goals are meaningless.
Set smaller goals and objectives, which snowball into sustainable habits.
What actions will kickstart the action for habit change? It can be useful to buy a new drink container, some new knives or food storage containers. Tools such as a new diary or journal can be instrumental in making changes.
Engage an accountability buddy.
Put the action in the calendar: "7am Monday: drink a glass of water", "3pm on Sunday; plan meals", "5pm on Tuesday: walk around the block". Or set reminders on the phone.
Goals - Start small and allow the habits to snowball.
Interestingly, setting goals isn't necessarily the answer to becoming a healthier you.
A big goal may be unattainable. Even if it is achieved, we often slip back into the old routine once the goal is reached. Has this happened to you?
Life-changing, sustainable habits start small, with tiny actions which snowball into bigger actions and more healthy habits. So rather than thinking big and aiming high, if we start small, like a seed and allow healthy growth toward the new habits.
Own the goal achievement:
EG: Set a small goal, say, add a piece of fruit to each day. By putting a plan in place, such as "put fruit next to bag", you reach this achievable goal, and your "habit-change-muscle" is woken up. Own the achievement. When you're ready, add another achievable goal, such as park the car further from the shops. Set the reminder in your phone to break the habit of parking close to the shops.
Remember to celebrate the win, by congratulating yourself.
Achievable goals
Avoid goals which are too big, unattainable or vague.
A loose goal, such as “get fit” or “be healthy” are unlikely to show results.
We need a reason for the goals, strategies to get us there and a benchmark to work around. Small goals blossom into to strong new habits for life.
Diary power
Using a diary or calendar helps us stay organized, and creates confidence in our ability to run our lives effectively.
A diary is useful for remembering to attend meetings and appointments. It's also highly beneficial for driving actions. Enter your goal actions into the diary, as outlined above.
A diary is a highly effective tool when it comes to habit change.
1. Writing down your action for a goal increases the likelihood of success.
2. Deciding when an action will happen is a key part of achieving the goal
3. Review: Keeping a journal with simple notes about how you are feeling is an excellent way to stay on track and see how your strategies for habit change are working.
If you are not in the habit of using a diary, what could create this habit? maybe sticky notes in a prominent place, or an alarm each morning to remind you to look at the diary?
Our environment and surroundings are a strong driver of habits.
Actions of the people in our lives, the visual surroundings, what we read, follow on social media and what we hear are all big influencers on the decisions we make every day.
Your brain is always being triggered by associations of time and place.
Finishing work for the day can trigger having a drink or reaching for the dog lead. The act of waking-up may trigger hitting snooze, putting the kettle on, or reaching for the phone, or a book. These actions become second nature.
Sometimes we will do something we don’t even enjoy, simply because it’s a habit!
Take the example of lacking motivation to tidy your room
Once the action of tidying your room becomes a habit, the habit can empower the motivation to tidy the room. In other words, you’ll tidy the room automatically, without having to think about it. You don’t need to summon motivation to do the task.
What could you change about your environment to increase cues for healthy living?
· Put healthy food in the front of the fridge
· Pop the runners near the door
· Lay the yoga mat out the night before
· Pack leftovers ready to grab and go for work
· Use sticky notes
· Write achievable tips in the calendar
· Set a timer to do “that healthy thing”… drink a glass of water, do 10 push ups.
Now write down up to 3 achievable habit actions for this coming week, starting with today. They could be simple or challenging, just make them achievable. Here’s some ideas to kickstart the thinking…
· Every time I look in the mirror, I will say 3 positive things about myself or my abilities
· Start the day with a glass of water
· Add a handful of greens to lunch
· Park further from the car
· Add a new “feature” veggie
· Do 10 squats every time you get up to make a cuppa.
· If you’re in a sit-down job, set an alarm to move for 2 minutes at certain intervals throughout the day. Stand up, stretch, squats, anything that can realistically work for you. Your colleagues may be encouraged to do this too!
1. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………
2. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………
3. …………………………………………………………………………………………………………
o What’s the plan to help you reach these goals?
o What strategies can you employ to make it happen?
o What systems can be put in place?
Ask yourself these questions:
1. What would a healthy body mean for you?
2. What do you really want?
3. Why are these goals important to you?
4. How will you achieve these goals?
5. When will you start?
Where are you on your health journey? Message me here via the website, Instagram or Facebook. @_thenaturalspace_
Book a time to chat and see how we can work together for a healthier, happier you. Laura x
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