How To Make Good Habits Stick

Changing your life usually comes down to building new habits, the kind that leave you healthier and a little happier. Starting one is the easy part. Keeping it going is where most people stumble. A handful of small adjustments can tilt the odds in your favor, and once a habit actually sticks, your larger goals stop feeling so far away. It helps to tie each new habit to a goal you already care about, because the connection gives you a reason to keep showing up.

Plan ahead and you strip away the excuses before they arrive. Say you cannot find your gym shoes: that missing shoe becomes the reason you skip the workout. So keep all of your gym gear in one spot, stocked and ready, so grabbing it on the way out takes seconds. With nothing to hunt for, the "I don't have what I need" story falls apart. Over time, refusing to indulge excuses makes you less likely to reach for them at all, and that is exactly the shift from old behavior to something steadier. Almost anything can be planned for in advance.

Temptation shows up whether you invite it or not, so it pays to know where yours comes from. Write out the things most likely to pull you off course. If your habit is the gym after work, a drink with friends might be the detour that gets you. Once you can name the temptation, you can set up something that blocks it before it takes hold. The same trick breaks habits built on impulse. Love to shop a little too freely? Freeze your credit cards in a block of ice. By the time the ice melts, the urge to buy has usually passed, and your spending stays where you want it.

Some days you will wonder why you bother. On a bad day, slipping back into old patterns feels like the obvious move. Having a written list of reasons to keep going can carry you through those moments. Take the first habit you are working on and write down ten reasons it matters. If it is the after-work gym trip, list ten reasons to stick to the schedule, then tape the list somewhere you will see it, like the dashboard of your car when you climb in to drive home. A quick glance can be enough to point you toward the gym instead of the couch. Build the list from both logic and feeling so it reaches you no matter what kind of mood you are in.

Keeping good habits is work, and you will slip up. That is normal. What matters is that you return to the plan and keep at it. When a mistake happens, treat it as information, learn what you can, and move on. Each misstep is a chance to look squarely at a weakness or an old habit you would rather be rid of, and to adjust not just that behavior but other parts of yourself along with it.

- Rosemary Kitchen

Resources: Young, S. (2015). 18 Tricks to Make New Habits Stick. Retrieved on March 19, 2015 from lifehack.org.