Would you also like to read more books, exercise more frequently and lower your debt with the bank?
The answer to these and other goals you set for yourself is the same: Build healthy habits! Your life is made up of the sum of your habits. Your finances are the sum of your financial habits. Your knowledge is the sum of your study habits.
And I say “the sum” because no change happens thanks to a single action
What do we understand by habit? A habit is an action that you do consistently and automatically
If you feel like you’re struggling to implement habits, it doesn’t mean something is wrong with you. It is probably the system you are using that does not allow you to incorporate the habit. Because if something doesn’t feel right, you’re not going to keep it in your life for long.
That’s why, your habits must be aligned with your values That way they will integrate naturally into your daily life and you will be able to achieve the consistency that is needed to achieve the goal you want.
The sum of small actions is what generates big changes
Let’s look at a very common example. A person with a slim and ripped body doesn’t look like that because they dieted for a week. On the contrary, it is the result of having maintained a healthy and consistent routine in various areas such as diet, exercise, hydration, among others.
However, It is very common to hear that maintaining a diet and exercise routine is very difficult Either because diet food isn’t as delicious or because you don’t have time to exercise. But the real problem is not the taste of the food or the lack of time, but the system you are using is not working for you.
How to choose the perfect system to build your habits?
It is understood by system the process you carry out to install a habit Example: the time you exercise, the type of exercise you do, and the place where you exercise.
What often happens is that the system is usually copied from someone else who has already achieved the result you want.
But, understanding that your habits must be connected to your values, it is likely that this copied system will not fit into your life. This leads you to perceive the process as a tedious or complicated experience, which it will lead you to abandon it
High expectations prevent the construction of habits
To build habits that help you progress in any aspect of your life you must focus on the system instead of the goals.
If you have the focus on the objectives any indication that you are not achieving it can leave you unmotivated and unwilling to continue taking action.
However, when you are focused on the process, you will move more fluidly and naturally towards the desired goal.
How to eliminate negative habits and build positive habits
If you want to eliminate a bad habit from your life, try incorporate more positive habits to replace it
Example: If you want to reduce your alcohol consumption, try to be more consistent in your water intake instead of radically cutting down on alcoholic beverages.
On the contrary, if you want to create a habit that impacts your life positively, you must take into account 3 factors: repetition, patience and the 3 levels for building habits. Let’s see one by one.
1. Repetition
To create a habit you need a system aligned to your values that you repeat automatically Remember that the sum of small actions is what generates big changes.
2. Patience
Big changes don’t happen overnight. We live in a world in which more and more technologies and products are emerging that promote immediacy, but you must keep in mind that to build habits that help you achieve important goals in your life, it is important to be patient.
This has a lot to do with what you read a few lines ago about focusing on the process and not the results.
3. Levels of change for building habits
Habits are built on the following 3 levels of change: identity, processes, and results.
First level: results
At this level the goal is associated with a result These results could be: losing weight, publishing a book, winning a championship or passing an exam.
Second level: processes
This level is aboutthe routines you implement to achieve your goal. Example: physical activity, organizational systems, etc.
Most of the habits you develop are associated with this level.
Third level: identity
This level is about changing the order of beliefs: your view of the world, your self-image, what you think about yourself, how you define yourself The habits that we have most deeply rooted are those that are directly related to our identity, therefore, if you want to change them you will have to put in more effort. This happens because to change those habits you will need to change your identity. And obviously, that’s not an easy task.
This is the most important level of change, since your identity defines your behavior and vice versa.
How to build better habits
I leave you here some tips to help you establish lasting habits that will impact your life in a positive way.
To close…
Building good habits is a process that will help you grow and become your best version
Remember that all good things take time, therefore, patience will be one of your strongest allies on this path that you will begin to travel. If you are having a hard time installing a habit, it may be because you have deep-rooted limiting beliefs that prevent you from taking action.
For that, you can approach a professional who will help you transform those beliefs, to free yourself and build new habits that change your life for the better.
