HOW TO BREAK OUT OF NEGATIVE CYCLES AND CREATE CHANGE

Creating positive habits in your life can have a large impact. It’s our positive habits that set a strong foundation for how we live our life. Our positive habits are the behaviours that will see us to the path of success in what we want to achieve, and they help us accomplish our goals. When we can implement behaviours consistently that will help us keep putting one foot in front of the other, even with life’s challenges, we can slowly but surely get to where we want to be.

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Whether it’s eating healthier, doing more physical activity, or minding our finances, habits can make it easy and provide a framework that makes us able to accomplish what we want. For example, small habits such as swapping out fizzy drink for water or taking the stairs instead of the elevator at work, can end up changing the way we live quite dramatically in a year’s time. Plus, once you are doing it to the point where it automatically happens, it becomes easy, and you are not thinking about it but just living it.

So how do you develop life changing positive habits? Here are a few strategies to help install the habits you want in your daily routine…

Find your why. Think about what you want to change in your life and why. When you have clarity in your purpose and the reason behind creating your new positive habit, it can help keep you focused and moving forward. Think about your goals and work backwards. What are the habits you can set in your life and what goals or purpose do they have?

Start small. You don’t want to go changing everything all at once. Start small and work your way up. When you start with a really easy habit to implement then you can achieve a sense of accomplishment straight away. The best habits are the ones that you don’t think about, you just do. When it’s part of your everyday life you can choose another small habit to help provide building blocks towards achieving your goals. What are small habits you can create to get you where you want to be?

Schedule in your habits. When you are implementing a new behaviour it’s a good idea to schedule it into your diary, so you don’t forget. You can intentionally set your new habits by making space for them in your life. When you are rushing around or always busy, it’s easy to forget about the new behaviour you’re trying to develop. Making space for change and new behaviours in your life is important, even if it’s just “At 12pm I will drink a glass of water”.

Plan an incentive. Developing new behaviours and maintaining them is always easier when you can sweeten the deal. If you’ve been doing well with your new habit it is especially important to reward yourself, so you remain motivated. It doesn’t have to be a big reward, it could be watching a new movie that you’ve been waiting to be released, just something simple to tell your subconscious that implementing that new habit wasn’t that bad and you can keep going.

Track your progress. Sometimes we don’t register our accurate progress if we aren’t writing it down. When you can visually see how well you are doing (or not doing) it help us stay on track and encourages us to keep working towards creating lasting change in our daily routine. In 6 months’ time you may be pleasantly surprised by how far you have come since the first month you tried implementing your new habit. This is good information to keep you going!

Commit to maintaining your new habit. Now that you have thought about your ‘why’ you have implemented small habits to help achieve your goals and you have been making progress, it’s time to commit to maintaining your new habit. Now that you have done all this great work, are you ready to make that commitment to yourself to incorporate your positive habit into your lifestyle? Yes of course you are!

When we develop small habits that create positive change in our life, we are cultivating a positive mindset. Habits help propel us closer to achieving our goals and they are a foundation for the kind of life we want to live. When we have implemented positive habits to the point where they are easy and we are not thinking about them, then we can reduce stress and provide ourselves with a sense of accomplishment.

This article was first published on focusmagazine.co.nz and is reposted with the permission of focus magazine and Dr. Madeleine Amie.

Categories: : Psychology