Do you have a habit, which you are not proud of? Or maybe you wanted to learn a new habit so you could perform, feel and live better life? If you ever tried to change or learn new habit, for example quite smoking or start exercising, you know how hard it is! It takes tremendous will-power, self-discipline and motivation to change it. Why can‘t we change our habits with less pain and agony? Let me share with you my story and easy steps, which changed my habits.
My Story
I have been smoking for about 10 years and I were never happy with my habit and was always dreaming about how good would I look, feel and act without those damn cigarettes. I remember myself trying to quite by forcing and beating myself, but at the end nothing changed. I though I would never quit smoking because I lack of willpower and self-control. Boy how wrong I was…
One day a book called “Easy Way to Quit Smoking” came to my hands. Even though I have a deep passion for reading books, I was quite skeptic about this one. It didn’t made sense that a book can make me free from smoking! Can you believe that a book can make you stop smoking and you can even enjoy it! Enjoy not smoking? You must be mad…that’s what I thought… And I was wrong…
Not only I quit smoking but also I enjoyed it! Then I realised how easy it is. The hardest part was in my head. I was my own worst enemy, because my mind was brainwashed by all cigarette advertisements, people who wanted to quit and said it‘s impossible and even by family, who lost their faith in me, said that I can‘t quit, because I‘m addicted.
So what made me to quit so easily and what are those „4 easy steps“?
Step 1: Give Reasons
To change a habit you must have clear reasons why you want to change it or learn a new one. List all the possible benefits it would bring you. For example my reasons of quit smoking was:
- Saving more money
- Being healthier
- Having more energy
- Being free from addiction
- Saving my teeth
- Not having any bad breath
- Self-confidence
- Sense of achievement
Also look ahead 5 years and think about how would this habit impact your life in those years. If you are smoking, count how much you have smoked already and how much would you would smoke in those 5 years. If you want to develop new habit, think of how it would change you when 5 years pass. Write it down next to reasons.
„Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going“ Jim Ryun
Step2: Set a Goal
When you set a deadline for your habit, you know exactly when you are going to achieve it. If you fail to do so, you would never know if you have succeeded or not. Goal is a must tool for you when you are changing or learning new habit. To change a habit it takes about 30 days or three phases:
Phase 1: For the first 10 day you will be going against yourself and your habit. You are going to face physical, emotional and mental resistance. Look at habit as gravity. The more you train yourself against gravity the easier it will be to move forward.
It‘s like launching NASA space-ship into space. To do that it takes 80% of fuel to life that ship into air and when it‘s finally there it can fly into space and comeback home with only 20% of left fuel.
Same with habit. It takes 80% of your energy at the beginning to go against the gravity of habit. But when you go through it, then you are on your way to success.
Phase2: You are „in the air“ and you perform much better, even though there will be some resistance of gravity. Would you give up when you are half-way there? It becomes much easier to resist as you build some confidence in yourself.
Phase3: you begin to feel that you are becoming much stronger physically, emotionally and mentally. You are making it to the end. If it‘s a habit you are getting rid off, you would feel a sense of freedom while you kick it away from yourself. If you are developing a new habit, then you would like to start enjoying.
When you reach day 30 you will be free from bad habit or you will enjoy new one as it was a natural thing for you.
„I say that habit’s but a long practice, friend, and this becomes men’s nature in the end“ - Aristotle
Step3: Decide
You must decide if that is what you really want. By deciding I mean promising and committing to yourself no matter what happens. If you respect yourself as a human being and you truly promise to yourself, you will succeed. If you are not sure then say to yourself that if you won‘t do it you will lose all the benefits that you have listed and also all those years that you thought upfront. Is it worth to lose it all?
Step4: Just Do It
Don‘t wait for another week, month, year until you will be „prepared“. You are already prepared, all you have to do is to take actions and do it now.
Sow a thought, and you reap an act; Sow an act, and you reap a habit; Sow a habit, and you reap a character; Sow a character, and you reap a destiny. - Charles Reader
Hopefully this will help to get rid of my nose picking habit
It takes most of the fuel to start developing your new habit but still, I’d leave 40% of the fuel to stick with the habit. Sticking to it might be even harder than starting it. Well, thats my opinion. I would love to be a vegetarian but I stick to vegetables, fruits, nuts and berries for a month and not longer..
Maybe you’ve got better glue?
Hey Bruce, it’s nice to see you here
You touched something that I totaly agree on, but I think it depends from nature of habit, how “heavy” it is. Some habits are easy to “drive”, some are way harder so it takes more of you to do it. It’s your personal approach to habit development that makes you to stick with it.
Look at habit as a muscle. Different muscles requires different training techniques. I just suggested fundamentals on which you train your muscles (habits). Like with all muscles, at first it will hurt you, but with with time you’ll become more comfortable and your overall strenght will improve. So I would advice you to figure your habit out, how you should approach it that would make sense for you and easier to stick with it.
In your case, why do you want to be vegetarian? Most obviously because it’s much healthier. But what does it mean to you? Can you perform better, be more productive, have clear thoughts and feel much better? What are your reasons? Find them and create your own eating mantra and use it everyday to guide and motivate you.
Hope this will help you
[...] To make the most of this technique I suggest you to read my article about how to change a habit in 4 easy steps [...]