My new year’s resolution is to replace the habits that do not serve my long-term interest with habits that propels me to the life I am meant to live. Herewith is my blueprint to successfully ingrain good habits into your lifestyle.
1. To be aware of the habit itself:
You have to be aware of any habits that you have which are preventing you from leading the life you envision. This is the crucial step to liberation from age-old bad habits. If we don’t even notice it in the first place, there’s almost a zero chance that we will do anything about it.
2. The next step is to pause and ask yourself this question: how is this current habit preventing me from achieving my goals and aspirations? To break a bad habit you need to replace it with another habit which you believe will improve the quality of your life. So replacing the old habit with a new one forms the designing-your-life crucial stage.
3. Identify how you are going to ingrain the new habit into your lifestyle. At this juncture you have to be kind and compassionate towards your good self. It takes enormous effort to break an old habit let alone starting a new habit. This old habit that you are trying to break off has been there in your life for a very long period of time. It takes considerable effort and mindful awareness to shift from a habit that has been with you for such a long period of time. At this stage you have to take it slow and easy. Not having a plan makes it easy to slip back into old ways, old habits and old beliefs; all of which can sabotage your efforts in making transformative changes.
4. Do a weekly self-appraisal. Evaluate how you have been incorporating your new habit. Be kind to yourself if you fall short of your overly optimistic goal. Change takes time. A weekly evaluation helps you to be on track and to make the necessary changes to the way you incorporate your new habit if deemed necessary. If you find yourself falling off the habit-changing bandwagon, break it into bite-size manageable chunks so that it will not be so overwhelming. Change is a gradual process.
5. Lastly, remind yourself the reason you are making this change. Sometimes somewhere along the line we can lose sight of the shore and find ourselves lost in the big wide ocean of life. Every now and then stop and visualize the life you want to create and be committed to the change you want to make.
Have a blessed and meaningful new year 🙂 With lots of love!
My Journal 