You’ve most definitely all tried to start new habits that you eventually didn’t stick to on the long term. I know I have. You might have even judged yourselves harshly, as weak-willed or lacking discipline.
But why do you actually not stick to what you want to improve in your life, whether it’s adding more exercise, eating less sugar or procrastinating less?
An article in the Huffington post refers to some very good literature on habit formation and concludes the reason why healthy habits are hard to implement. It is because we are all so different and a habit ritual must resonate to a personal reason. Some health specialist telling you that you need to exercise more is not going to be effective. Unless you want this, it makes sense to your world view and you frame your reason correctly. You must be very precise and personal as of “why” you want to adopt the new habit. Simply saying “I want to go to the gym regularly” because I know other people have enjoyed healthy living by adopting that habit, turns out is not going to work or motivate you. There needs to be something specific and important to you to increase success chances, such as “improving my cardio so I can run with my kids”, which resonates and makes sense to you on a personal level. As mentioned in one of our previous posts, positive thinking about the new habit is also scientifically proven to be effective.
According to Deepak Chopra, visualising what you wish for can help to stick to the new routine, together with repetition and focus.
Read more on the subject on the Huffington Post
