Habits, or repetitive actions and thoughts, have a way of shaping our realities and the way we experience life. In fact, it is often said that by re-shaping your day-to-day habits, you can transform your life for the better. This article outlines 5 helpful tips for developing new habits to improve your life.

1. Identify The Right Habits

Knowing the habits that you would like to form is the perfect starting point. Some people simply aren’t aware of their bad habits let alone any new habits that would like to create. A great exercise to discover those specific habits that might change your life for the better is to ask yourself: “If I did ________ on a daily basis, my life would change dramatically”. Once you identify these actions or habits, commit to them for 90 days.

2. Combine Habits In Clusters

We are all creatures of routine, and combining these habits into clusters to perform on a daily basis can make taking action more seamless. For example, commit to doing these 5 things every morning before you go to work, or make sure you do these 3 things each night before you go to sleep. Combining your positive habits into clusters that are part of your daily routine makes them easier to complete and harder to forget!

3. Combine A Habit With A Guilty Pleasure

Sometimes new habits are hard to form. Combining an action that is good with a guilty pleasure is a great way to get excited about getting it done! For example, if you would like part of your routine to be a morning walk, find a podcast or playlist that you love and listen to it as you walk. Or, if you have an indoor bike or treadmill, consider watching a Netflix series so you look forward in anticipation to the next episode (and workout). This also satisfies our need to multitask, but unlike most multitasking, we actually can accomplish something.

4. Time Block

We all have busy and hectic schedules. Between work, family, and the “to-do” list sometimes it seems like there is never enough time in the day to get anything done! Time blocking is a useful tool for making sure you have time to do it all! Try to schedule 10-15 minutes of distraction-free time every 2 hours. This can keep you focused on the task at hand and allows you to eliminate any unnecessary distractions.

5. Re-Evaluate Your Habits

From time to time it’s best to take a step back, look at your life, and re-assess the situation. Sometimes when we get into a routine, we do not realize that certain habits might not be serving us anymore. Try to re-evaluate your habits quarterly. Are these habits still serving you? Would it be beneficial to increase, decrease or change the habits that you have adopted?

Contact Us For A Consultation

Are you looking to develop new, positive habits in your life but just don’t know where to start? We can help! The process of developing and adopting new habits is never easy and learning some tried and true tricks for committing to a new habit and staying focused is critical to your success. We can help guide you through this process. Schedule a consultation today to get started on your journey!