How to Create Good Habits and Stick to Them

Do you find yourself returning to bad habits that you just can’t seem to break?

Bad habits are something that’s a fact of life. All of us have them, whether we acknowledge it or not and most of the time, we find them hard to shake.

But just like the bad habits, we all have good ones too, and there’s a way to make us stick to the good ones, while replacing the bad; we just have to know how to do it.

As you will see, the wise advice and opinions that I’m about to share are not just my own. The quotes and concepts were taken from researchers in the field of behavior and professionals who really know their stuff.

The magazine article I read that inspired me to write this story was focusing on the issue of eating healthy, and habits surrounding that task. But as I read, I realized how well the principles could really be applied to any situation that involves habits.

So if you’re serious about holding onto the good habits that you already have, as well as developing a few new ones in the process, make sure you read to the end of this story, AND make a point to start implementing the wise tips and suggestions.

Creating good and bad habits can sometimes happen naturally.

If you’re one of my faithful and trusted followers (thank you), you know that I constantly make a point to mention that I’m a prolific writer, and to qualify the statement, I’ll usually throw in the fact that I’ve published “x” amount of stories so far — in this case, 348 — and I let you know that I did it in less than 5 months.

I do this because this is a habit I’ve developed doing in my writing, ever since I crossed the thresh-hold of writing on a sometimes basis, to writing like a mad woman and amassing a huge catalogue of stories so quickly.

I did it the first couple of times, to add credibility to my discussion on being productive. At the time, I had 173 stories, and I could clearly see the benefit of mentioning it whenever it was relevant.

After mentioning it on a few more occasions, over time it became a habit, and one that I personally view as a good happen (even if others don’t see it that way :-)

As my number of published stories increased, the number I cited would increase, but I’d still make mention of this accomplishment.

I’m able to monitor where I need self improvement when I write stories that highlight my milestones. So this habit benefits me, even though I never planned it to become a habit; it just happened naturally.

In a similar way, we sometimes form other habits just as naturally, without even being aware of it. But not all the habits we form this way are good habits.

For instance, somewhere along the way (during my journey through life), I managed to develop the bad habit of avoiding change. I had no idea that I was afraid of change, let alone how I came to develop that fear.

Unknowingly, I would decline to do things that ultimately amounted to me doing something different and taking me out of my comfort zone. Of course, it didn’t seem that way to me. I always had a good excuse why I’d agree to go to a sleep over with “friends” I knew from school, then later renege on the invitation.

I avoided situations that made me anxious and focus too much on my being acceptable to others. Needless to say, I’ve avoided a hell of a lot of situations over time.

Oddly enough, it wasn’t until this very year (2021), that I came to understand my negative habit of avoidance as being a fear of change. Read and see what I had to say about it, when this happened to me.

The examples of my good and bad habits are totally different in the type of habit each one is (a tangible one versus a mental one), and the time it took for them to develop ( a few days or weeks, versus over a period of years).

There is, however, something that holds true, regardless of the kind of habits you’re dealing with. All habits can be broken, and all habits are best eliminated, when you replace them with a new habit.

So basically, by swapping them out, you can get rid of bad habits and replace them with good ones. Doing this requires making a conscious effort. This particular part of the equation is not something that will come naturally.

Learning how to create good habits is the easy part

When you really think about it, learning how to create good habits is not the difficult part. Learning to STICK TO those good habits is where the challenge comes in.

For Example:

You may have decided to eat healthier, and even stacked up on lots of healthy food, including all the vegetables that you typically avoid.

See how easy that was. You’re already on the right road to having developed a good habit. You probably even cook a whole week of awesome — or at least healthy — meals for you and your household.

But the following week doesn’t go as well, and you might have only prepared four healthy meals this time. You’re already starting to break the good habit you were developing.

Of course, you meant well, but by the time you got to the kitchen to make dinner, you were in no mood to peel and cut vegetables, and prepare something healthy and tasty. So out came the frozen peas, or worst yet, the frozen pizza.

Now, suppose your vegetables were already peeled, washed and cut up. Do you suppose you may have felt like preparing them for dinner then?

Probably so. That’s why it’s so important to do the necessary things for us to succeed in calling on our good habits, and not give ourselves excuses to backslide to the bad habits.

5 Ways to maintain the good habits we create.

No one knows what things you need to work on better than you. You probably won’t have to think too hard about the good habits you’d like to develop. You may even already have tons of good habits and things you love about yourself.

But perhaps, those habits have been dormant for a while. If so, it’s time you reactivated them, as well as make some new ones.

We can trick our brains into creating good habits, as you’ll see in a moment. It’s all thanks to all those feel-good neurotransmitters that experts say go off in our brain when we receive pleasure.

At least that’s what Wendy Wood, Ph. D. seems to think. She’s a professor of psychology and business, at the University of Southern California. She’s also the author of the book “Good Habits, Bad Habits: The Science of Making Positive Changes that Stick.”

This first tip is based on advice from this expert. It tells you how to keep those good habits alive and activated in the future.

5 Helpful tips:

#1 — Make it easier for your good habits to succeed, pairing them up with an activity that you enjoy. For instance, consider the above example about the vegetables.

Suppose you enjoy watching your favorite “House Wives” of wherever show once a week. You can create a new habit of peeling, cutting, and prepping vegetables for the week, all while watching your favorite television show.

Eventually, you’ll find yourself looking forward to peeling vegetables.

#2 — When trying to break a bad habit that you haven’t managed to replace with a new one, you may have to take another approach. This method is about mindfulness, and trying to identify the source or reason for the bad habit.

Another professional weighed in, by the name of Liz Chamberlain. Chamberlain is a Ph. D. and psychologist at the University of Colorado School of Medicine (Anschutz Health and Wellness Center).

In an example of a compulsive eater, mindlessly digging through the refrigerator, Chamberlain suggests:

“Pause and think about what you’re feeling. Try to identify what’s going on, whether it’s stress or boredom or worry.”

As you might imagine, this is a strategy that can be applied to a multitude of bad habits and negative behavior. Sometimes we don’t understand our habits and behavior ourselves, unless we consciously stop and take a real look at what’s going on.

#3 — Similar to number one on the list, another great way to establish and maintain a good habit, is to repeat them until they end up on autopilot. You don’t need to stop and think about things like brushing your teeth, tuning into the morning or evening news, or other activities that are part of your daily routine.

In the same way that you can pair new habits with enjoyable activities, you can also pair them with routine, mundane activities that you know you have to perform regardless. Somethings are second nature to us, purely out of necessity. Those are the kinds of activities we can pair up with good habits.

#4 — This tip is compliments of an associate professor of psychiatry and psychology. Hedy Kobr, Ph.D. advises using healthy thoughts, when it comes to how you view the things you eat.

In the case of an individual who’s not a fan of vegetables, she pointed out how mentally talking about the value of the vegetables while you consume them is a good habit to create.

So instead of: “I’m so sick of this damn rabbit food” (my words not hers), you could replace the thoughts with: “Thanks to this delicious, crunchy lettuce, I’ll be able to fit that new outfit in no time” (me again).

#5 — Another mind trick we can play on ourselves is in harmony with positive talk, only this time it’s a visualization technique. Allow yourself to visualize the reward(s) you will reap for sticking to your good habits.

This is almost like #4 above, where you only think and remind yourself about the new outfit you’re hoping to get into. But this time, you actually picture the reward. SEE yourself walking into the party or wherever, wearing that new outfit and showing off your new figure.

Final Thoughts

Don’t underestimate the above 5 tips and advice about dealing with good and bad habits. Just because these experts used their viewpoints to apply to food related habits, doesn’t mean we can’t use this sound advice in other areas of our lives.

Remember:

• The best way to stop and eventually eliminate bad habits is to replace them with good ones.
• By doing things to make it easier for us to lean into our good habits, we set ourselves up for success.
• Our minds play a big role in how we talk about our habits and how we actually see ourselves succeeding.

Source: Woman’s Day Magazine — Issue: August/September 2021

DEAR READER: In spite of the advice and opinions I shared in this story I do not profess to be an expert. I only aim to share how I handled a situation when this happened to me, and also how I feel about situations that I can relate to. The views I express are part of the many life lessons I discovered on my journey to self improvement.

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