Changing Habits

5 ways to possibly change a habit

    2
    0
    1
    0
    2 Likes | 4 Views | 5 days ago

    Hello, thank you for taking the time to see my article. Itโ€™s lovely to have you here, letโ€™s get started!

    I often wonder if there is any magical or an exact way to break the old habit patterns that could really help me to improvise in my developmental areas. I believe, most of us are trying to break an old habit pattern/s that might be acting as a hindrance in the process to achieve the goals that we might have planned for ourselves. We all have different life experiences and our habits are formed over a period of time as a result or the response to those life experiences that we might have faced. However, as we face gradual transformation through our life journey, we might want to break some of our old habits and their pattern in order to support the life goals that we have planned ahead.  I am here to share 5 such ways that stood out for me.

    1. Pattern Mapping-We can try to identify specific patterns that had led to our old habit/s formation and in this process, we can also try to capture the frequency of occurrence of those identified patterns.

    2. Transcribing the old habits- After we have identified the specific patterns that makes us repeat our old habits (that we are trying to change), we can go ahead and create a list of habits that we really want to work on and change, so that it gradually transforms into a new learned habit/s.

    3. Making a note of desired new habits- Post completion of 1+2 steps, we can briefly jot down the habits that we want to create and follow in the near future. Here, we should try to list at least 3-4 habits that we want to follow and include in our daily lives.

    4. Creating a 15-day plan- Habit formation is a gradual process and its frequency and pace of implementation will be very different for everyone. Hence, this 15-day period will act as a brief checkpoint if we are able to follow the existing set of schedules for ourselves.

    5. Creating a 60-day plan- We can now go ahead and create a more comprehensive plan of implementation of the new identified habit/s, this will mostly look at a 2-month window. At this stage, our observations might evolve holistically, so we should aim at reviewing this plan every week to make a note of what all aspects are working well for us and what needs to be removed from the existing plan. As we regularly edit, a revised action will emerge and this can also determine the road map for the next set of days.

    Advertisement

    Orient Electric Areva Portable Room HeaterOrient Electric Areva Portable Room HeaterRs. 899

    There could be a lot of factors (such as the natural environment, any specific timeline that we have planned for ourselves, social aspects and social support) that might influence the process of a new habit formation. We should be mindful that we should mainly focus on the factors that support the journey of building a new habit rather than creating more pressure on the schedule. This is essential as any new habit needs adequate time for its implementation.

    We mainly aim to form a new habit as it may be perceived to be more rewarding in the near future due to its progressive nature and how it might have helped other people around us. I think to make this process a bit more reflective and engaging, we can create a habit-result sheet for ourselves. This will include jotting down all the shortlisted habits that have been identified and then we can try to answer the following questions: what will we specifically achieve after the successful implementation of the habit, how will this improve our life holistically, what are the challenges being faced in this process and how can we possibly work towards those challenges. We all have subjective life experiences and the pace of habit formation will be different for everyone (as a new habit formation is a gradual process with consistent efforts). The idea here is to keep making small efforts each day in the comprehensive process of habit formation. We will start to notice that the newly developed habit will soon become an indispensable component of our schedule. Lastly, we should certainly not forget to go ahead and celebrate after the 15- and 60-day exercise (mentioned above) has been completed. It is very important that we acknowledge our efforts in this process before we embark on a new stepping stone in the journey ahead!

    Thank you so much for your time. I will catch up soon and, in the meantime, wishing you a very pleasant day ahead!