Habits building guide

 



Before we dive into this guide let's find out: 'What is a habit?.

A habit is a set of behaviour that we do often without thinking about it, like brushing our teeth before sleep. More simple is our autopilot.

In this guide, we will learn how to identify our good and bad habits, what type of mindset we have and how to change it and how to implement habits that will improve our lives.


How do focus in the age of distraction?

At this point all big companies are fighting for our attention and focus, take a second to think about all our social media platforms and videos or movies on demand. Try to recall your last social media interaction, you open the app and probably 30 minutes passed by without you even noticing. These apps are built in such a way that are creating spikes in our dopamine, this keeps us glued to the screens and keeps us scrolling for the next video or picture that will give us another spike of dopamine, this circle repeats.

The key to taking the control back is to recognise the habit of going to social media and take control of it consciously. What I did for my phone addiction is that I instaled an app that won't let me use the apps once I passed an hour per day( you can set any limit you like). This has helped me to take conscious control of the habit.


Everything is a habit. 

Everything we do on daily bases is a habit. Waking up and brushing your teeth every single day, is your morning habit. Waking up in the middle of the night for a snack is a habit. Coming back from work and straight away you go for TV, this is a habit.

Let's look at how these 3 areas of habits affect our lifestyle and health.

  1. Habits that impact our Health- The big companies 'promise' us a pill that will solve all our problems and diets that can make us healthy. But what if we can take control and every day bit by bit we start implementing habits of eating healthy and home-cooked food. Using the compound effect, this habit over time will make huge changes in our bodies and health.
  2. Habits that affect us financially- For example gambling or impulse buying. Remember when you both did something last time and got home and wondered why you did it, then a few days later realising has no use. The big companies have become so good at pushing down our buttons that we are programmed to think that everything we see is of use to us. Take control of this situation and try to implement a habit of saving money instead, many apps will help you transfer money into saving accounts. This example of good habit will help you over time increase your wealth and investment portfolio.
  3. Habits that affect our mental health- If you have a habit of going to bed late and sleeping a few hours every night this can affect your daily life tremendously. Lack of sleep will affect your focus, mood and will decrease your confidence( especially for men, lack of sleep will decrease your testosterone levels)


How to change your habits for good.

Let's start with the habit loop which consists of the cue, routine and reward.

  • The cue- walking in your kitchen. This is the trigger for any habits and can be associated with locations, time, emotional state or other people
  • The routine- start looking for food. This is the habit behaviour
  • The reward- Once you eat the food you will spike your dopamine levels. The brain will remember this spike of dopamine and will remember it for the next time you go to the kitchen.

The way of changing this habit loop is to identify the routine. Next time you go to the kitchen to have a snack, please chose consciously a healthy snack like fruit. By doing this over time your habit of eating food in the kitchen will be replaced with a healthy one of eating fruits.

When you are conscious enough of your habit you can break it over time by choosing to do something else instead of eating, for example, drink some water.



Micro changes in your habits.

When it comes to habit changes we rush head in first and try to make a huge change and then in a couple of days we are back from where we started. For example, if you want to eat healthier you can't just replace all the foods in your house and expect to not crave all the salty, sugary and fatty food you use to eat. 

That's why is important to start one step at a time and be constant with it every single day.

Take this example, you want to implement a habit of meditation every single morning after you wake up. Most people think is ok to go from never meditating to full 20 minutes of meditation. This won't work. You might do it once or twice but then you will feel pressure and find excuses that you don't have 20 minutes every morning to meditate, this is because we yous will power to do it.

What we recommend when you want to implement a new habit is to start with a small amount and then increase over time. 

In this case, you will want to start with 3 minutes every mourning, your brain will be more receptive and adapt slowly to your new habit. In time you will build new neuronal pathways. After a month these 3 minutes of meditation will be done automatically without you even thinking of it.


How to stick with your new habits?

First of all, is to master the block building habits which are habit loop and micro habits. If you understood these concepts and start taking conscious control of them you will be unstoppable in your new building habits path.

Based on scientific research, every single habit takes about 21-30 days to become a habit that you will stick with. So I encourage you to take conscious control of the habits you want to change for the first month then you will start seeing results.


 

Comments

  1. I've been trying to get rid of some habits for a while now. Thanks

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Same here! I am trying to get rid of some of the bad habits, but never achieve my goal in the end. Get rid of it for a while, and come back to it later on. Feeling guilty, get rid again, and the story will repeat..

      Delete
  2. Bad habits lead to...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a good idea for a next topic to be honest! Will be interesting to see where our good and bad habits lead to..

      Delete
  3. Replies
    1. Ha ha! That's a good one, man! No late party anymore

      Delete
  4. Can you write an article about bad habits, please? I am trying to quit smoking for a while..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a good one, James!

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    2. Ha ha! I want to see this one, as well! Such a good point

      Delete
  5. I really like the way you are writing! Really subjective!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks to sharing this amazing methods, man! Keep up writing! I really like your style of writing

    ReplyDelete
  7. I keep sticking to the micro changes, but how can we move on to some big changes? I am afraid will will fail, when I will make this transfer

    ReplyDelete
  8. Interesting topics how to build habits! I think you should write more about how to stick with our new habits! I really need more motivations, and no excuses..

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I am agree with Steve! I need more concrete advice regarding to the "How to stick with your new habits?" I feel like I can achieve everything I want in the live, but It's hard to keep doing it for a long term..

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  9. We need more topics like this one, man! Keep writing! I feel your why of thinking and I like it! Such a good influence for the new generation

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's true, Danny! I would like my kids to start to read this kind of topics later on

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  10. That's true: "Everything is a habit". This is scary in the same time as even the small decision lead to a habit later on

    ReplyDelete

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