Form A Habit
How To Do Anything in 21 Days
You might have heard before that all it takes to form a habit is 21 days. Well, that's true for creating a new wake up, sleep or morning habit as well.
Believe me, if you really want to, you can change your life in only 21 days. A new exercise habit - 21 days. A new eating habit - 21 days. A new study habit - 21 days. Yes, anything - 21 days.
I'm gonna let you in on all the tricks on how to get it done. With emphasis on your morning habit of course so you can sleep well, wake up early and have a great morning routine.
What Is A Habit?
A habit is nothing more than an automatic response to a certain situation. That's it. Some possible examples:
- You walk around when you speak on the phone
- You put on your make-up or shave in the morning
- You turn on the TV when you come home
- You smile when you see a friend
- You eat a fruit after lunch
- Etc. etc.
As you see the variety is endless and the type of habit can frankly be anything. The key point that defines a habit is that you
ACT BEFORE YOU THINK
As you might have noticed, you already know how to form habits. All you need now is to create habits for exactly what you decide, not those things that just happen. Let's see how we can do that then.
How Do I Form A Habit?
So how do we reach the stage where we just take action? Where we just do it. Actually, only two things are needed from you:
- Time
- Discipline
The time aspect is the reason why we must keep it up for 21 days. These days are enough time to tell your body and mind that you don't even have to think anymore before you do it.
But why exactly 21 days?
The 21 days is just a great rule of thumb that has been proven to work for many people and many habits. No science, just try and you will see.
Now the tricky part is to have the discipline. You want to just focus on those 21 days though. If you tell your brain that you will change your life forever, it's gonna be too hard. Just set a goal for 21 days. That's all. After that you will see how this has become all automatic.
"Every day, really?" most people say. "I'll just start slow and try it a bit at first...". No, no, NO! That is the path to disaster...
"The road to someday leads to the town of nowhere"
You gotta start big, otherwise you will be struggling every day until you finally give up. Recognize the pattern. It can easily happen to going to the gym, going up early, writing a blog, etc.
The absolute best tips I have to keep your discipline up are to:
- Reflect every day - At the end of each single day for 21 days, write down in the end if you succeeded or why you did not. Put it on the wall.
- Spread the word - Tell a friend to check up on you once a while so you can feel the pressure.
- Reward/Penalize yourself - If you succeed, give yourself a reward. If you fail, attach some consequence to it.
You can actually find even more research-based tips in this article about how changing habits will help you create the life you desire. The author and my good friend Chris has taken a much wider approach to explain the science behind changing habits.
Now, back to our task. During these 21 days, you really have to put this habit at the front of your mind. I know you will be busy, but you can always find time. Especially in the morning where you can control the events fully. If you want to form a habit of waking up early, easy and fresh, then the following is a...
The Challenge
I have created habits by using this method for many different things. Some good examples that I still do today:
- Waking up early (before 0600)
- Learning at least 10 new words per day (foreign language study)
- Eating at least 5 fruits per day (banana, apple, pear, orange, kiwi usually)
- Doing exercise every morning (at least 15 minutes)
Now I urge you to create your own habit. Just decide something that you want to change or start doing in your life. Then get out there and do it!
And please post below to let me know how it's going :-)
Early Riser > Wake Up Early > Form A Habit
Thanks for reading! By Matthew M. McEwan
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