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Habits. Your entire life revolves around them. It doesn’t matter if you’re consciously making them or not. Some of your habits may have been engrained since you were a child and you don’t even realize it.
For example, I recently went on a trip with some family members. I noticed something that I used to do. Like to a freaking T people. It’s not this big horrible thing, just a quirky small thing but all of my other family members did it.
This was a habit that I grew up with and developed unconsciously. I had to work at it to break this habit when my husband pointed it out to me.
So think about it. What are some habits, good or bad that you have developed as you’ve grown? Do you want to change them? Here are some tips to help with that.
Start with something small
Have you ever tried to do something new? Then added about a thousand and two things on top of it? Yeah, me too. Sometimes I tend to forget that I’m Super Girl. But I’m human. We’re all human and we all have limits.
Hear me please, that is ok!
Give yourself a break, sis. We all have lives, families, jobs, and responsibilities. Yet, we beat the crap out of ourselves if we don’t “do it all”. Whatever “it” is.
So start small. Pick the littlest habit that you want to change. Do that for 21 days. Do it over and over again until you don’t have to think about it.
Then when it’s ingrained, pick something else. And do that for the next 21 days or however many it takes for you to do it without thinking about it.
Get back up when something knocks you down
You’re going to fall flat on your face. Anything that you don’t want to do, you’re going to find an excuse not to do it.
But you’re going to get back up and do it again.
And for the record, falling is not failing. Not getting back up and in the fight is failing. Don’t give yourself the excuse to not do it. Get shit done. Then go on about your day.
Find out why you’re stopping. What are your roadblocks? Kara over at the Unf*ck your Brain podcast as a great episode on Unconscious Commitments. During the podcast episode, she talks about why we fail at doing something and why. The reason why is usually because we have already unconsciously committed to something else. Do yourself a favor, go listen to this episode. It opened my eyes to so many unconscious commitments that I had made over the years.
I’m working hard to change those commitments but it takes work. And it’s hard. I never said that this was going to be an easy journey, just that it is worth it.
Another thing is, we all have bad days. And we’re entitled to them. What I’m saying is that if you miss a day, it is ok. But tomorrow, get your butt back up, on the highway and move.
You can do this.
Setting goals and using quotas to reach them
I hadn’t heard of using quotas before, or at least in this sense. I guess I had thought about it because I know that if I want to become a better writer, I need to set a word count for each day.
When researching for this post, I came across a post from Sparring Mind on good habits. The article talks about how we fail because we set up this grand vision in our mind then we are overwhelmed by it.
To combat this fear, set yourself quotas to build up to that grand vision. The article uses the example of Nathan Berry’s case study for writing his self-published books. He committed to writing 1000 words per day.
So commit to something small and do it every day. Sometimes it’s easier to add something first before you start taking things away. Right now, I’ve committed to drinking half of my body weight in oz of water per day.
Also, your why is so important during this step. Get clear about why you want to make this new habit. This will internalize your motivation and you will be more likely to complete it.
Make a plan + overcome those weak moments
When it comes to doing new things, it’s better to have a plan in place. We often get overwhelmed with things if we have too many options and a plan is a roadmap.
When we sit down to do the thing, if we know what we’re actually supposed to be doing vs. winging it, we’re more likely to stick with it.
Another thing that planning beforehand will push you to think about is the obstacles that you face when you’re trying to start that thing. For example, for me, when I know I need to be doing something related to the blog or the Etsy shop, somehow there’s 1001 amazing shows on right at that very moment. Or I fall down the YouTube rabbit hole of videos.
When I’ve planned out what I need to do and have a list that I can check things off of as I go, I tend to put my ass in the chair and work.
Another plus of planning is that it will push you to think about your commitments and what you can actually accomplish. For a really long time, I overextended myself. I thought I could do it all. But when I finally sat down and tracked my time, I realized that I was trying to do way, way too much.
Or if I didn’t know what to do, I was keeping myself busy by spinning my wheels trying to figure out how to do this or that.
So do yourself a favor, make a plan ahead of time to stick too.
You’ve got this
Creating new habits is a simple process. But they are nowhere near easy. Just remember that you’re going to make mistakes. That doesn’t mean you’re horrible or that you can’t do something.
It only means that you are getting out of your comfort zone and growing. This is the goal of new habits. You’ll kick ass at some point, but practice makes perfect and slow and steady wins the race. I know it’s corny but it’s also true.
I believe in you. Tell me some wins or some fails in the comments. How can I help? What other content would be helpful? I’d love to know.
Until next time.
