How To Stick To Good Habits
Most people find it difficult to stick to habits. Before discussing how to stick to habits, we ought to discuss why people don’t stick to them. There can be several reasons behind this, the habits being difficult or our not enjoying doing them, etc. There can be various other reasons too, such as being discouraged by people or being demoralised due to overdoing it in the beginning and losing the enthusiasm, later down the road.
Overcommitting is just as bad as not committing. Some would say over committing is synonymous to barely committing at all. Attempting any significant change in your life in an instant and hoping for it to stick with you is the most promising method of destroying your habits.
Start Simple
We will focus on the prime rule of one habit at a time. Most people don’t understand its importance. Its easy to start 5 new habits at once but sticking to them is something entirely different. Make it a rule and do not break it.
Keeping it simple and small is very important in the beginning to make it a permanent habit. If you are making a new habit of exercise don’t make it too hard. Keep it simple. Do the exercise in the beginning to make the habit and not to stay in shape, the latter will follow with time.
You might believe that you can change everything about you in one day. You can change your diet and routine and everything else all at once. This is not very likely and will result in an epic downfall of your habits and it might result in ending that habit before it begins. It can also potentially cause a reversal in habits and take your farther from your starting point.
Just Start
All the focus on the start. The first step is always the vital part of any race. Just start doing it. Eating healthy? Take the first bite. Started yoga? Get in the first pose. Push the button and start it. Take the first step, rest will follow. Just do it.
The question people usually ask is “how is your habit going? are you enjoying it?”. This is more important than we realize. Enjoying something you do is as important as doing it. Because if you don’t enjoy it, you will not be able to continue it. Positive feedback is important and you will only get it when you love what you do.
Share what you have started with at least one friend and urge them to keep you accountable. Keep an eye on you. Make sure you don’t miss two straight days or you don’t look weak in front of your habit. Thi
s is the key if you miss a day make sure you do not miss again and double down the next day.
The Golden 1% rule
James Clear in his book ‘Atomic Habits’ writes and stresses upon the importance of 1% rule where he puts forward the theory that in order for us to get in better shape, or start reading, being regular on doing your chores, doing taxation or banking work, establishing skin care routine, or starting any other habit that improves us as a person, we don’t have to rush into it. Instead, all we need to do is make sure we improve
ourselves each single day. We only have to pick a single and small habit, and stick to it for the rest of our lives. Over the course of a year, it will have significantly improved our personality and will have helped us in sticking to our habits.
The idea is that 1 % improvement accumulated over the duration of one year will result in betterment and improvement, since,
(1.01)365 = 37.78
Which means that a mere improvement of 1% per day for a year can make us 37.78 times better at anything if we keep it small and stick to it.
The entire notion of sticking to habits and ensuring their execution is to make us better versions of ourselves. In lieu of taking drastic changes in our life, we ought to stick to small yet consistent efforts and find an intersection of our proclivities with our habits to create them more enjoyable for us. The atomic 1% that most of us tend to ignore is what creates gigantic impacts at the end.
Here’s a list of books that have helped me develop great habits:
Deep Work: Rules For Focused Work in a Distracted World: https://amzn.to/3fYBs81
The Power Of Habit: Why We Do What We Do, and How to Change: https://amzn.to/3fWfiDx
