The Secret Of Change: The Generation Of New Habits
The new school year arrives, we start a new job, we decide to start a healthier life by going to the gym… All these situations are very common for most people, and as one of the great Greek philosophers called Heraclitus said: “Everything flows; Everything changes; Nothing remains.” Day to day We are faced with decisions that can change the meaning and direction of our lives and only our motivation towards them can make us follow them.
One of the keys to achieving the goals we set for ourselves is the generation of new habits Creating routines that facilitate and guide us along the path to reach our destination is essential. Thanks to these habits we develop new neural circuits and behavioral patterns that, if well consolidated, will accompany us for the rest of our lives.
Learning a new habit not only depends on repeating it, but is closely related to the individual’s ability to know how to manage our emotions. Nowadays, talking about emotional intelligence is nothing new, but there is a term known as delay of gratification that can go more unnoticed.
When we decide to get involved and commit to carrying out a task, we put into motion various mechanisms, among which is emotional control.
Various studies, such as the popular Marshmallow Test, have shown that those people who are able to delay their rewards over time obtain benefits in different facets of your life. Some of these experiments took as a sample children of infant age who were left in a room with a very appetizing candy and it was proposed to them that if they did not eat it they could obtain a larger number when the experimenter returned.
The results of these tests were that those who waited longer, when re-evaluated as adolescents and adults, demonstrated a notable series of advantages over their peers.
As adolescents, they had higher scores on social competence, self-confidence, and higher self-esteem, and were rated by their parents as more mature, better able to deal with stress, more likely to plan for the future, and more rational. As adults, they were less likely to have problems with drugs or other addictive behaviors, get divorced, or be overweight.
Adopt new habits
Beyond knowing how to control our desires for rewards, There are some keys that can help us introduce new habits into our lives
1. The 21 day rule
One of the pioneers in talking about The 21-day rule for creating new habits It was Doctor Maxwell Maltz. A renowned surgeon, he realized that in cases such as cosmetic operations or limb amputation, it took people 21 days to generate a new mental image of themselves.
Thanks to these discoveries, we take this time period as a reference for the consolidation of new habits, that is, it is necessary to repeat the new behaviors for 21 days so that they become automated and consolidated.
2. Associate it with our value chain
If the new habit that we want to include in our daily life is very closely related to our values and/or principles, it will have extra importance that will encourage its realization. This can be explained through its link with our intrinsic motivation our wanting to do something proactively.
One of the ways of learning that human beings have is visualization. It consists of imagining ourselves carrying out the tasks or objectives to be achieved. Through this process, our mind is acquiring some of the necessary skills and can be a great support to the physical realization of them.
On the other hand, techniques such as meditation can encourage the development and consolidation of new habits. It has been proven that through them significant changes occur in the brain structure related to well-being and happiness.
4. Perseverance and commitment
Both are essential to achieving a new habit.
At first it can be complicated, for this you can manage your attention and focus on the benefits you will obtain in the medium-long term It is important that the new habits you consider are affordable, positive and that you can measure your progress towards them.
We learn something new every day, it is not a question of unlearning those routines that bother us or that we want to change, but of considering other alternatives that promote our personal development and provide us with well-being.
At UPAD Psychology and Coaching we help people in the generation and acquisition of new habits that will allow the client to achieve their goals, obtaining high levels of satisfaction and well-being.
