Anyone who's been trying to form healthy habits knows how difficult it can be at first. One theory that's often heard about habit-bu...
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One theory that's often heard about habit-building is the “21/90” rule:
It takes 21 days for a new habit to form, and another 90 days for that habit to stick.
In addition to these two key stages, the initial decision to commit to a new habit is also important.
Step 1: Deciding to adopt a new habit
A departure ritual
Before adopting a new habit, a good way to mentally prepare yourself is to have a starting ritual.
Telling yourself and perhaps the people around you that you would like to make a certain change is like setting an “imaginary milestone.”
This will not only remind you psychologically, but it will also encourage others to help you achieve your new goal.
A reason behind the change
It's essential to identify what drives you to make a change and where your initial motivation comes from.
Your habit won't last long if the reason behind it is self-punishment.
This means that an intrinsic motivation to establish a habit must develop from what you love, rather than hate.
A well-established goal and steps to achieve it
Once you've made a commitment, it's important to set a clear goal and make detailed plans.
The goal can be big, but it can also be achievable and broken down into daily tasks.
For example, if you've decided to “eat healthier,” your goal might be to “halve the frequency of eating out and double the amount of vegetables I eat in the first month.”
Based on this, you can then plan your weekly meal plans and daily calorie intake.
A tool to help you track your new habit
Sticking to a habit with an app can help guide you and keep you from losing it, and the TickTick app is a great option.
With TickTick's Habit feature, you can create a new habit any way you want, setting the frequency, customizing the icon, and adding quotes to keep you motivated.
All of this can be done in a matter of seconds to help you create a new habit.
Step 2: How to incorporate a new habit
Schedule your habits and be reminded
Once you've created your new habit, the next step is to schedule it.
Plan a time for it and get a notification. This is easy with TickTick, as you can view your habits on your calendar and see when you need to do them.
You can also get reminders throughout the day. For example, if you decide to “drink 8 glasses of water daily,” the app will remind you 8 times at different intervals to drink water.
Visualize the process instead of the results
A common trap people fall into when forming a new habit is fantasizing too much about the results.
For example, when starting to learn a new language, beginners often imagine a scenario in which they will be interacting fluently with native speakers of that language.
This may seem inspiring at first glance, but it does nothing to help you achieve your goals.
So, instead of visualizing the long-term future, see yourself improving day by day: that is, see yourself practicing that new language every night after work.
This is much better, as it helps you make real progress.
Track your progress and reflect on your performance
It's more motivating to develop a new habit when you can track your progress.
Instead of doing the math yourself, use apps like TickTick , where you can always track how you're doing and get some interesting insights to reflect on.
Here are two interesting features:
Habit Tracker
- keep track of your progress, noting what you did and how you felt.
Habit Statistics
- reflect on what you did well and what still needs improvement.
Let go of guilt and be flexible
One thing you need to accept is that there are always ups and downs in the process of building a new habit, which means that no one can do it perfectly every day.
Don't feel guilty if you fail one day, because you also need to give yourself some breathing room.
On TickTick , you can mark your habit as “not achieved” because balance and consistency are more important.
Guilt is perhaps the most destructive emotion. While it can encourage you to take quick actions to compensate, it can also destroy your willpower a second later.
Identify lame excuses and eliminate them
We are usually very good at finding excuses for our behaviors.
For example, “I won't go to the gym today because I eat less than usual.”
This is an excuse because eating less doesn't make up for the workout you need to do today.
When that voice in your head says “You don't need to go today,” think twice about whether it's true or just an excuse that will get in the way of your healthy habits.
Step 3: Maintaining a new habit
The partnership scheme
As mentioned earlier, having someone to help you adopt healthy habits is a way to increase your power of achievement.
This could be a friend, so you can work towards the same goal together, or just someone who knows your plans and can give you a little push when you notice that you're getting off track.
You can motivate yourself by following someone you admire on social media. They can be an example of what you want to achieve, even if you don't know them in real life.
Increase your motivation
To keep doing something out of habit, in addition to the initial motivation, extrinsic motivations are also a great source of willpower.
Rewarding yourself to achieve your goals is what people usually do to increase motivation.
Give yourself a small reward when you achieve small goals, and a big reward when you achieve big things.
Avoid hasty decisions
Nothing changes overnight, and neither does your behavior.
Even if you've seen some progress, it may not be the right time to take it to the next level.
Make your habit consistent. Take small steps and make sure you don't give up on your habit because you're rushing.
Following the “21/90” principle, there should be 3 stages to developing a new habit: planning and starting from scratch, maintaining a habit for 21 days to form it, and another 90 days to maintain it.
Follow the tips above for each stage and have new healthy habits in your life!