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Habits: Start Small
Start small with something you already desire or like to do, to ease out the entire process for you right at the start.
For example, if you plan to write more, why not buy a journal and a pen that you want to use, and keep them handy, facilitating the writing habit naturally.
MORE IDEAS FROM THE ARTICLE
Resolutions feel huge, requiring a lot of mental bandwidth and loads of constant motivation to keep up. Resolutions are easy to decide on but tough to maintain daily.
Habits, on the other hand, are naturally easier to do. They are positive daily activities and actions, are brain-friendly, learned behaviors.
Whatever task you plan to do, make it as simple and doable as possible, removing any friction that can lead to putting it off.
Create or adjust your environment to provide you with cues to take on the positive habit of action.
Tell yourself what a good job you are doing, and get your brain to be happy, by celebrating even the smallest success.
Repeat your actions daily, while evaluating them on a weekly basis.
Enable faster growth of your positive habit by following the process of repetition and evaluation.
RELATED IDEAS
Our emotions create our habits, and celebration is the best way to create a positive feeling that waters your new habits. It pays to be nice to ourselves.
Celebrating the tiniest detail of your busy lives, when you remember to hang your keys where they should be or when you tidy up your room, can shift your perspective, and makes your life better in a couple of minutes.
Peer pressure works. And a good support network shows us that change is possible.
Hang out with pals who have the habit you want. Across many different kinds of behavior (voting, smoking, weight loss and weight gain, happiness, etc), people are very meaningfully affected by the behaviors of other people to whom they’re connected.
Improving mental flexibility and reducing the causes of stress and anxiety is the antidote to our unhealthy and repetitive habits and behaviours.
Mindfulness meditation can help us increase our cognitive flexibility, as can physical activity, social interaction and new experiences.