The 'Creating New Habits' 7 Day Challenge
Updated: Jul 28, 2020
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting to see a different end result. If the actions you take aren't in alignment with the actions that will bring about the change you're seeking, chances are nothing will shift. Real change only happens when you create new habits that directly create the change you desire.
The 'Creating New Habits' 7 Day Challenge
>> New here? Welcome to the Blog Challenge series, where we challenge ourselves once a month to improve our health or lifestyle in some way. If you are new to following my Blog Challenge series, it's super easy peasy to participate. Just tune into the blog each day through the website or my app and follow along. Read the challenge post with a journal or pretty notebook handy. Write down any "ah-ha moments", ideas or inspiration and follow the prompts to complete the challenge.
How To Create New Habits
In this month's challenge we'll be challenging ourselves to create some new habits. Naturally, we all have times in our lives where we intentionally want to change our behavior for the better and create new habits for ourselves. This could mean something like getting in the habit of eating healthier and drinking more water. Or it could be moving more and taking the dog for a daily walk. The new habits can also be work related, spiritual, or just about anything.
There are so many areas in our lives that could be improved and made easier if we just created new habits in alignment with our goals. Take a moment right now to think about what you want to shift or change in your life. Write your desired change down. If you feel overwhelmed by all the things you want to change, prioritise.
What is the most urgent to achieve versus something that can wait?
What is keeping you up at night? What needs to shift?
What can you realistically take on right now?
What is something small and achievable?
What is something small that would make a big difference in your life right now?
Getting into the habit of doing something is often easier said than done. Frustratingly, we seem to acquire bad habits without any effort, whereas getting into a “good” habit can be far more challenging. Can you relate? I sure can!
To help you ace this challenge, I am going to break the secret to forming habits down into a 3-step process. This will make creating your new habit so much easier to practice until you have internalised the new behavior and made it part of our new normal. Habits are things we do automatically without having to think about, like brushing your teeth, making the bed or showering every day. Its automatic and part of your daily routine.
1. Decide What You Want To Do
The first step is to decide what you want that new habit to be. You need to be as specific as possible here., Reference your notes from above if you need to get clarity. Don’t just tell yourself you want to stop over snacking. Instead say something like “I will eat celery and carrot sticks instead of potato chips from now on.” or "I will walk for 15-minutes every night after dinner." Be real specific.
TASK: Decide what your new habit will be, plus when and how you intend to make it part of your every day. Take your time write this all down.
2. Remind Yourself To Get It Done
Once you've decided on the new habit, you’ll likely be highly motivated and excited to get started. Sticking to your new habit won't be an issue, at least initially. But a few days in, you’ll unfortunately notice that it’s too easy to slip back into old habits or suddenly seem to lack the motivation you felt before. Life might get in the way, and when stress is high, it can be easy to chuck your new habit into the 'too hard basket'.
Maybe it’s raining and you don’t really feel like going out for that walk. Maybe your day just got away from you and those chips are an easy grab over the effort of chopping up veggies. This is when it’s really important to have a daily reminder of your new habit. Set an alert on your phone or add the new habit to your daily to-do list for a while. This prompt will help to keep the change you want top of mind. Remind yourself of how important this shift or change is to you even when you don't feel as motivated.
It's also very helpful at this early stage to think of what might get between you and the goal. What can you do now to make this new habit easier to form? Can you chop those veggies ahead of time? Could you invite a Mummy friend to join you on those evening walks while you push the pram? Stop now and have a good think about it.
TASK: Write down your thoughts and ideas on this. Troubleshoot the problems and interference before it even happens to bulletproof your success.
3. Making It Part Of Your Routine
This is the last step. Naturally, it takes some time before a new behavior becomes a true habit. Until then, a routine is the secret sauce to ensure success. Even before the new behavior becomes automatic, a routine will help make sure you get it done without having to spend a lot of willpower or just relying on those daily reminders in your phone.
Make that daily walk part of your new after dinner routine, or make it a new routine to chop a few extra veggies each night while cooking dinner so you have some to grab and go instead of greasy, fatty potato chips. Pre-plan your success to keep and maintain the new habit until it sticks.
TASK: Write down what you can do to make this habit really stick and become part of your every day. How can it fit into your existing routines?
Here's Today's Recap: Decide to create the new habit, practice the routine until it’s second nature and you’ll be well on your way to creating lasting change.
Tune in tomorrow for Day 2 where we'll explore how long it takes to create new habits and how the power of consistency will be your new BFF. See you then!
Health + happiness,
Emma
xoxo
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