How To Successfully Develop Habits Into Your Life

Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. When you click these links, I may get a small commission. It won’t cost you anything, but it helps me to run this site. I only promote products and services that I think are great and trustworthy. 

This past year, I became really inspired to make changes to my lifestyle. Living a healthier and happier life is a goal I really wanted to achieve, just as I assume it's something that we all want. Developing habits can certainly help, but how do we actually develop habits and make them stick to become apart of our lifestyle?

Last year, I got into bullet journaling. My favorite page was my habit tracker. For each month I would list out, and track, all of the habits that I wanted to develop. However, every task I had written down never actually become a habit.

After reading multiple articles, blog posts, self-help books, and watching youtube videos. I started to figure out why I was never successful. Now I can easily say that my healthy habits and routines have made me feel productive, more motivated, and have helped me work towards my long-term goals.

How To Correctly Develop Habits Into Your Life.

#1 Figure out your current habits.

This first point I learned from Kalyn Nicholson. She is by far one of my favorite YouTubers who always find ways to inspire and motivate me. A big part of trying to change your habits is by first figuring out where you currently stand. It sounds weird to say, but sometimes we are completely unaware of the habits we currently possess. Whether those habits are good or bad.

Once you understand the habits you currently perform, you can then figure out if these habits are something you want to continue or ditch.

#2 Figure out your "why".

In order to keep that motivation in performing your habits, figure out your "why" behind them. Get clear on the end results of developing your habits. Why do you want to read more? Why do you want to go to the gym more? All of us have long-term goals, sometimes our habits help us lead to those goals. A yearly goal, like losing weight, ties to the habit of working out, eating healthier, or avoiding junk food. Focus on those goals and the end results that you want to achieve. Use that as your motivation to keep up with those habits. 

#3 Start simple.

One of the most important things to consider when you want to develop habits is starting off small. Changing your routine requires a lot of mental strength and commitment.  An important concept to understand is ego depletion.

Ego depletion is a psychological term which states that self-control, or willpower, is a limited resource that we can use up. According to ego depletion theories the decisions and actions we take, use up our mental energy. Once that energy begins to fade, so does our willpower. Thus, focusing on multiple habits makes it impossible to maintain this strength. 

There have been countless times when I was over-motivated (I blame all that caffeine) and tried to accomplish multiple habits and goals within one month. Don't expect too much from yourself too fast. This can lead to doubts and negative thoughts if you aren't actually accomplishing what you want or expect yourself to accomplish.  

You will be more successful if your store of willpower is channeled into completing one, or two, habits rather than focusing on a variety.

#4 Focus on the behavior first.

This point ties up with starting small. As mentioned, sometimes we expect too much from ourselves right off the bat.

Let's say you'd like to start going to the gym. You decide to go from spending 0 hours at the gym to going for 2 hours every day, chances are you'll find going to the gym for 2 hours hard to complete. To fully commit to your new habit, focus on establishing the actual behavior (going to the gym) before increasing the effort (length of time). The effort can always be increased once your habit of going to the gym is developed.

#5 Figure out your plan.

It is extremely important to figure out HOW you're going to accomplish these habits. There are so many ways you can help make your habits easier to achieve. Let's take a look!

Removing Temptations

I've come across a video on Youtube discussing "The 20 Second Rule". The video discusses developing positive habits while getting rid of bad habits.

A way to try and remove these bad habits from your life is by increasing the activation energy. For example, if you want to start eating healthier or change your diet, avoid purchasing junk food. The harder it is to perform those bad habits, the less likely you'll do them because they are no longer the "easy" route. 

Try rearranging your environments to make your new habits easier to accomplish. Another example is placing out your workout clothes the night before so when you wake up your clothes are ready to go. Now, your clothing works as a reminder to work-out, and you're also one step closer to working out. The fewer efforts you have to take to do something, the more likely you are to perform those tasks. 

Attach new habits to current ones

This concept is known as, habit stacking. It connects a new habit to an already formed behavior. Essentially, habit stacking works really well because our current habits are already built into our brains and have been strengthened over the years. By linking your new habit to an already built cycle, you're more likely to stick to that new behavior. For instance, after you pour your morning cup of coffee, meditate for one minute.

Visualization and affirmations

We all know or have at least heard, that positive thinking is an important tool for motivation and can assist in getting to where you want to be. A popular concept studied, known as the law of attraction, is the belief that anyone can determine their destiny through the power of their minds. 

Affirmations can help in reprogramming the unconscious mind, as they are intended to convince the mind that what it whats to happen will happen. Visualizations are similar, you visualize yourself achieving something and your brain will come to believe it.  Together, both of these can help you envision yourself carrying out certain behaviors. Thus, making it easier to adopt them.

Tell others about your plan

A great way to keep on track is by letting others in your life know about your plans and using them as motivation. It makes a huge difference when we have others watching us, it provides more discipline and determination. Another great way is to get a buddy. If someone else is also wanting to develop similar habits as you, you can hold one another accountable, or even perform the habits together.

#6 Stay committed and consistent.

There is a lot of research out there that states it takes around 30 days to build a habit. However, this amount will vary from person-to-person and habit-to-habit. Some habits are more easily achievable because it requires less effort than other habits do. Attempting to keep working at your habit for a minimum of 30 days should do the trick. The more you work at your new habits, the more likely you are to have them stick and become apart of your lifestyle.

#7 Track your progress.

Lastly, is tracking your progress. Tracking allows you to look back and acknowledge your wins and also your failures. I know what you're thinking, why would you want to see any potential fails, that's kind of depressing, I get it. But even so, knowing that we may have not completed our habit for the day, can help you figure out what caused you to not perform it in the first place. Therefore, helping you to avoid it the next time around. Our failures are what helps us grow and learn.

Those were my tips on how to develop habits and stick to your goals.

What are some habits you want to start working on? What habits have you already developed into your life? Share in the comments!