Top Tips to Start a New Habit

I set myself the challenge of swimming 40 days straight in a local lagoon. That was about 60 days ago, give or take, and I’m still going strong. Has it been easy? Yes and no. It definitely takes something to get up at 6.30am every day (yes, weekends too) to be in the lagoon by 7am, but it wasn’t hard. Once I had made up my mind that that’s what I wanted to do, after a few days of actually doing it – and really loving doing it – it became such a positive force in my life, I couldn’t not do it.

Lagoon in Tiburon, CA. Day 40.

When it comes to creating a new habit, there is some groundwork that needs to be laid to give us the best chance of success. I will be talking a lot about habits in the coming weeks, and I think it’s important to get really clear about laying the foundation for what it is you’re setting out to do.

Motivation

Before you set out to either make or break a habit, ask yourself if this is something that you really want to do. If you move forward and there’s a “should” in there, the chances are it’s not going to stick. You want to free yourself of any conversations that have a “should” or a “have to” in them. There may be outside pressure, there may be legitimate medical reasons to do whatever you need to do, but until you can access a genuine desire to do what it is you are planning to do, there’s a good chance you won’t succeed – and, no matter how far you get, chances are you’ll be miserable as you try to get there.

Mindset

How you look at, or frame, something has a huge impact on how you experience it. When I stopped smoking over 20 years ago, I wasn’t coming at it from the perspective of denying myself, or “giving up,” as is often the case when stopping an unhealthy habit. I was able to access the freedom I was going to get by no longer being controlled by this addiction. I was able to switch from thinking how bad it would feel not having that after-dinner cigarette to how good it would be to sit through an entire movie in the theater and not have to leave halfway through to have a smoke. It may seem like a small reason, but it represented the freedom I would feel in many aspects of my life.

It’s not about will power. Whatever you do, don’t white- knuckle it. It doesn’t work.

Start Where You Are

So, before you begin to put any new habit in place, have a really good conversation with yourself about what it is you’re trying to do. Be honest with the way you are looking at things, and if you’re coming from a sense of lack or denying yourself, or pushing yourself to do something, see if there’s a way to shift the context to something positive. And, if you can’t get to the positive right now, wait until you can, and try to find something else that may bring you the same results that you are looking for – something that has more appeal.

There are so many juicy things to think about and talk about when it comes to habits, I can’t wait to explore this fascinating topic with you. In the meantime, if you’ve any comments about this post, I’d love to hear from you.

Until next week… I wish you Happy Healthy Habits.