Starting a Good Habit

We all know how easy it is to fall back into a bad habit…but did you have any idea how easy it is to create a new good habit?  Research has shown that it takes 30 days to make something a habit.  That is attainable for all of us.  The reason most of us fail when we try to make changes in our lives is that we try to do too much at one time.  A drastic overhaul of your diet and exercise routine is doomed for failure. New Year’s Resolutions are a perfect example. Every January 1^st, the gyms are packed with new and lapsed members. They all have good intentions…this is the year they are getting into shape.  They show up everyday for a couple of weeks and then they disappear.  Sound familiar?  Basically, they set the bar too high. Going from sitting on the couch to working out five days a week is too big of a leap to remain sustainable.

If you want to make a positive change in your life (and who doesn’t have an area in which they could improve?) start out small.  Instead of committing to five days a week at the gym, commit to two.  After a month has passed, when two days a week is now routine, then increase it to three, and so on until you have reached your goal.  Steve Pavlini has a great website for personal development…I credit him with this idea.  He refers to it as a 30 day trial. Think of it as trying a new product for 30 days to see if you like it.

Make a list of both your good habits and bad habits so you can see where you want to focus your efforts (was the bad habit side easier to fill up?  Mine certainly was!)

What new habit would make your life run a bit more smoothly or ease some of your stress?  Take a few minutes to think about it and then commit to one thing.  Be forewarned…the results can be addicting…you may end up creating all sorts of new habits once you realize how easy it is.  And just like with food, the good stuff crowds out the bad stuff, so eventually that list of bad habits will be a distant memory.  I’m still working on mine….