Introduction
Forming positive habits isn’t always easy. However, our habits shape who we are. Depending on whether they are healthy or harmful, habits determine if we’re happy or unhappy, healthy or sick, tired or energised, strong or weak, and so on.
But before we can take up good habits, we need to understand what habitual patterns are and how they’re formed.
What is a habit?
A habit is a tendency to do something, whether harmful or health-promoting. A good practice will help you reach your goals, develop personally and professionally, and feel fulfilled. However, not all habits are good. Reward-seeking mechanisms in the brain drive the pattern. They’re often triggered by something specific. For instance, walking past a cafe and smelling coffee beans can trigger you to want a cup of Joe. Feeling stressed at work can start you to smoke a cigarette. After a while, habits become a repetitive part of your lifestyle.
Forming habits is the brain’s way of being more efficient. As far as the brain is concerned, the more tasks you can complete without wasting time thinking about them, the better. And our brain’s tendency toward efficiency can be positive. For instance, drinking a green smoothie every morning benefits your health. And not having to relearn how to drive your car every day means you have reliable transportation. Of course, this efficiency can also be damaging. For instance, biting your nails every time you have a meeting at work can wreak havoc on your nails. Or not brushing your teeth after eating can lead to tooth decay.
How do habits form?
Habit-forming is the process in which behaviors become automatic. It can be an intentional process, or it can happen unplanned. For instance, you were most likely taught to wash your hands as a child. And after a while, washing your hands became automatic. It wasn’t intentional – it happened after lots of repetition.
Replacing your nightly glass of wine with a glass of water, on the other hand, is intentional. So is replacing your morning cup of caffeinated coffee with decaf. Keeping in mind the habit-forming process is that it doesn’t happen occasionally. It’s an endless feedback loop that’s running and active during every moment you’re alive. That brings us to the habit loop.
How does Inite help to develop a habit?
To develop a helpful habit of generating ideas from you, Inite resorts to a systematic approach. It is believed that it takes about three weeks to form a habit. Our team has developed a system that monitors, supports, and increases your motivation daily. You don’t need any mentors, gurus, or brilliant practitioners; we are always with you and help you solve daily tasks and set global goals! So that you can develop on your own, let’s look at some tips that will help you keep a new habit.
How to maintain a habit?
- Make it part of your schedule
- It can be easy for new positive habits to fall by the wayside when you don’t do them regularly. To avoid this, make your new habits part of your schedule. Use time management techniques to manage your time and prioritize your practices effectively.
2. Create a supportive environment
Surround yourself with like-minded people who have similar goals to you. Why? Because as humans, we are greatly influenced by what others around us are doing or feeling. A study found that the exertion of mental effort is contagious. Simply doing a task next to someone who exerts action will help you do the same.
Being around like-minded individuals is also encouraging. For example, you may have formed a habit of going for a run in the morning. Making connections with other runners will give you extra energy and motivation to stick to your running habits. Being around a cheerful group of people who share similar goals and interests can be the single most significant catalyst to help you maintain your practice.
Tell your family, friends, and colleagues what you plan to maintain your new habit. Sharing your habit goals provides accountability and support for your habit maintenance.
3. Use reminders
One of the trickiest parts of maintaining a habit is remembering to do it first. As we’ve mentioned above, it takes time for actions to turn into habitual behaviors. To help keep your practice, set reminders for yourself. This could be a visual reminder like a post-it on the fridge or your mirror.
4. Practice self-compassion
Building a habit is difficult. But maintaining it can even be more daunting. Putting too much pressure on yourself to maintain your practice can be counterproductive. For example, if you fail to keep up with your habit, focusing only on failure can be tempting. Negative self-talk and automatic thoughts like «I’ve failed again» or «I’ll never succeed» will only set you back.
Instead, avoid being too critical of yourself by practicing self-compassion and emotional regulation. Remind yourself that habit formation and maintenance is a journey. And failure is a natural part of the journey.
Conclusion
Building good habits is one of the main pillars of personal growth. To create better habits, you should positively shape your environment and take it one step at a time. Don’t know where to start? Start with Inite! We work and develop to upgrade your skills and become the best version of yourself day by day!
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