The 4 simple steps I use to implement any habit in my everyday routine.
Humans are creatures that are built on habits. Habits are all that we do. From the moment that we wake up to the moment we go to sleep, all we do throughout our day are habits. Brushing our teeth — habit, having our breakfast — habit, going to work — habit, travelling to and from work on a certain route — habit, go to the gym you guessed it, habit. Habits shape who we are as people, we are just made up of habits, whether they are good, bad or neutral habits, it’s what we are.
Almost everyone has habits that they want to implement into their lives but every time they try, they just cannot seem to get them to stick. I have been in this same situation many times in the past, however, there is a way to get the habits you want into your life and get them to stick. It is a method that I have only seen a couple of authors talk about over the past couple of years (BJ Frogg and James Clear).
I rarely see anyone talking about it so I thought I would share the method here. In this article, I will provide you with an easy 4 step method that I use to help you create and build up the habits that you want, with some examples to show you how it works.
Before you can implement a lasting habit, you need to understand what a habit is, and it is quite simple. A habit is an action that is repeated regularly. That’s it. It is not something that happens once then it’s over; it is something that is duplicated time and time again. This could be either consciously or subconsciously.
Now we are aware of what a habit is, a repeated action, all we need to do is find out how we can get the repeated action (or actions) that we want into our lives. We are going to implement them into your routine in 4 simple steps.
The first of the steps is to identify what habit you want to incorporate into your life. I would recommend making a list of all the habits that you think of, either writing them down onto a piece of paper or typing them out on the notes in your phone. The habits I came up with when doing my list were exercise, regularly doing course work, learning a BSL and reading. The list can be as long as you want. Once you have established the habits you want, select one and move on to step 2 (Don’t worry if you can’t decide on the best or most important one, because we will come back for the rest later).
The second step is to make the habit small. The most effective way to start implementing habits into your life is by starting small. Take the habit that you have decided you want and break it down into something small. An example of what I did when I was implementing a reading habit was, read one page a day. You can make habits small time-wise as well, take a running habit and say, “I am going to run for 1 minute a day”. Once you have made a habit you want small, move onto step 3.
“Small progress is better than no progress”.
The third step is to find a way to fit it into your routine. A nice example that BJ Frogg gave in his book ‘Tiny Habits’ for trying to implement a flossing habit into his routine was “after I brush my teeth, I will floss one tooth”. Although this was something small it was a habit that was maintainable and could easily be done after he brushed his teeth. If you start big you most likely won’t be able to maintain the motivation to keep going; you have to start small and build up momentum. So, once you have decided the habit you want and made it small, find something you can link it to. For the reading habit that I was trying to implement I linked it to having my breakfast, “after I eat my breakfast, I will read one page”. A habit that you want could even be linked to an action you do, such as yawning. You could say, “every time I yawn, I will read 1 page”.
The fourth and final step of building a habit is to grow the habit. After you have all the other steps in place and the habit established, you can then think about growing the habit. When it came to my reading habit, I decided to increased it to 2 pages a day. I would only recommend growing the habit when you feel comfortable with the habit. You need to get used to it in your routine before you decide to step it up.
Whatever your habit is, the goal for step four is to gradually increase it, only by a small amount so that it doesn’t become too much of a hassle and can still be done with ease (you don’t want to increase it too much and lose motivation). It is then up to you to increase the habit gradually until you are where you want to be with your habit. Make sure that you are consistent with though, for consistency is what makes something a habit. If you increase it and find you are no longer able to be consistent, don’t be afraid to take it down a notch.
In short, the way to start to implement habits that you want into your life in easy 4 steps are by:
1. Establishing the habit or habits that you want to add to your routine.
2. Make the habits small.
3. Find a way to fit them into your routine.
4. Growing the habits.
“Things become easier with consistency.”
You may think starting small may not be the best because it’s not where you would like to be at first, but small is where you have to start to maintain. I would recommend giving this method a go as it is something that has helped me build up numerous habits in my life. There is no big secret to creating the habits you want in your life, it’s just starting small, getting comfortable and growing.
“all you need to do is start small, get comfortable, then grow.”
Thank you for taking the time to read my article. If you found it helpful and think it could help someone else, then please share it with them.
I’m an independent writer, writing mainly on self-development.
I occasionally write on personal experiences, interest, business, criminology, books and places.
If you are looking for a way to try and better yourself, then please feel free to read some of my other articles linked below as you may also benefit from and enjoy them.
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BJ Frogg and James Clear are two authors who go into depth and detail with implement habits into your life as well as being able to get rid of bad habits too. I would recommend reading their books to gain more insight into building habits.
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