What's new

Forming New Habits

mr0001

New member
Conventional wisdom (derived from research) holds that it takes 21 days for a new habit to stick. Have you ever had any luck forming a new habit? What habit was it? What was your approach and how long did it take you?

I think about this every New Year's Day because of all the talk surrounding resolutions. I do set resolutions on New Year's Day and throughout the year. The most success I ever had was one year when I decided to quit drinking pop/soda. I worked in an office where they had free beverages available for the staff and I had started having a can of Sprite every day. That New Year's Day, I quit cold turkey. No real planning besides keeping a water bottle next to me all the time and using that to distract me. It took me about 5 days to stop missing the Sprites and then I got over it. That was 12 years ago - I can count on one hand the number of times I've had any carbonated beverages since then.
 
This would be a great video for you to check out. It's about 4 minutes. I found it motivational.
Maybe you could share it as well. I'm not sure what is more difficult- stopping something or starting something. Thoughts?
 

Trey.ru.iii

New member
I find the most difficult part of forming new habit to be the dedication to continuation.
It is jokingly easy to say "I want to commit to walking 10000 steps a day", and it is equally easy to do just that for maybe a few days in a row. But after that initial explosion of excitement and energy towards an initiative, it then begins to get hard. When we, and we all invariably do, reach that valley in our motivation level, is when quitting is preferred to continuing. It is the ability to be unshakable in your 21-day pursuit of a new habit that takes true grit and admirable determination.
I find myself to be a very average young man who is above average at forming new habits and discarding old ones. There is no special gift you need to be able to do this. When you are on the verge of giving up on yourself, you have to be able to see through the excuse you are painting to rationalize breaking your promise to yourself. It is easy to say, "this is an exception", or "i deserve this because...", or "i've done mostly good already", but it is exceptionally hard to stick unwavering to your new habit. I find that if I can identify when I am at a low in my energy towards a new habit, I make the conscious effort to chew up and swallow any excuses, see the benefits I will enjoy at the end of my journey, and give myself an immediate spark of energy to just start and get my body moving in the right direction.
 

ShannonMarie

New member
I highly suggest reading the book "The Power of Habits" by Charles Duhigg. It looks into both how to create habits but also the psychology of habits. It's like self-help plus cognitive behavioral therapy.
 

tploeger

New member
Conventional wisdom (derived from research) holds that it takes 21 days for a new habit to stick. Have you ever had any luck forming a new habit? What habit was it? What was your approach and how long did it take you?

I think about this every New Year's Day because of all the talk surrounding resolutions. I do set resolutions on New Year's Day and throughout the year. The most success I ever had was one year when I decided to quit drinking pop/soda. I worked in an office where they had free beverages available for the staff and I had started having a can of Sprite every day. That New Year's Day, I quit cold turkey. No real planning besides keeping a water bottle next to me all the time and using that to distract me. It took me about 5 days to stop missing the Sprites and then I got over it. That was 12 years ago - I can count on one hand the number of times I've had any carbonated beverages since then.
I do believe that the 21 day rule holds true, my struggle though is to keep up the new habit to the end of the month. Were there any tips you used or have that have helped you to continue breaking habits/forming new ones that you could share?
 

mr0001

New member
Were there any tips you used or have that have helped you to continue breaking habits/forming new ones that you could share?
Good question! I do have a few things that have worked for me. For breaking the pop/soda habit, I found that having a replacement drink (cold water) next to me was crucial. It turned out that I was sipping on the Sprite because it was refrigerated and cold. Sometimes, the office could get very hot. I filled my water bottle in the morning and would stick a few ice cubes in it. That meant the water was always cold and felt refreshing, sort of like the Sprite.

Another thing that has worked with me in terms of building exercise into my routine is scheduling it into my calendar. When I joined a gym, I went through its group exercise schedule, highlighted at least 1-2 classes every day that I could attend, and then stuck the schedule with highlighting into the visor above the driver's seat in my car. So I see it all the time. After going to a few classes, I found which ones I liked most and then put those into my calendar as recurring events. So if you look at my schedule, there are blocks every day for workout classes, e.g. spinning, pilates, etc., along with my work meetings and personal commitments. I have found that if my workouts have equal importance on my calendar, I am more likely to stick to them and not schedule other stuff at a conflicting time.

Anyone else have tips from their own experiences?
 

Top