Changing many habits
haideralmosawi • 12 Jun 2024 •
How many habits are you looking to incorporate in your life?
I think there are maaaany habits we want to change across different life areas:
- Spiritual: how we cultivate a sense of purpose, making contributions to the lives of others, prayer, etc
- Intellectual: reading books, listening to books/podcasts, writing out our thoughts, developing our study skills, etc
- Psychological: improving our mental wellness, seeing a therapist, journaling, reciting affirmations, etc
- Social: strengthening our relationships, improving our conversational skills, being good at the different social roles we play, etc
- Professional: getting better at making money, managing money, marketing ourselves, creating products/services, etc
- Recreational: incorporating fun in our days, picking up hobbies (old and new), etc
- Physical: taking care of our bodies by having nutritious meals, improving our sleep, increasing how much we move, hygiene practices, etc
Everything I mentioned for each life area involves a number of specific habits (repeated behaviors). Improving sleep, for example, isn’t just one thing we do. It can involve:
- Stop drinking coffee/caffeinated beverages in the afternoon (and even this can be a number of habits, such as coffee and diet coke. Cutting both out are two different habits)
- Having an earlier dinner
- Having a lighter dinner
- Taking supplements before bed (such as magnesium glycinate, l-theanine, and valerian root)
- Lowering the temperature in the bedroom
- Turning off our lights when we sleep (or wearing a sleep mask)
Several habits for one dimension of one life area!
So it’s safe to say that there are plenty of habits we want to change (either starting or stopping).
My goal isn’t to overwhelm you, but to let you know that it’s possible to incorporate new behaviors into our lives with ease by making habits simple and sustainable. Trying to change several habits that are hard to keep up will likely mean we give up entirely on all the new habits we want to develop!
I’ve found it useful to not sweat a day or two missed in a habit. It’s ok if I miss my morning supplements for a day or two (or three). I simply go back to the practice when I remember (and my routines aren’t disturbed).
With time I get better at doing more of the things I want to do and less of the things I don’t want to do.
What habits are you looking to change? What strategy are you taking to improve your chances of succeeding at making those changes more consistent?
Comments
That’s a long list; for now, I am just trying to maintain 2~3 habits daily, including reading something and learning something through video.
It’s funny how some of your examples are so obvious and ingrained that I don’t even think of them as habits. Turning off the lights before going to sleep? Umm yah!? What other option is there?
Right now I’m back to one meal a day and waking up at 4am. Feeling good being back on these habits!
@Winkletter Keep in mind these are multiple habits and you can celebrate them accordingly 😂
@knight I managed to develop 40+ habits within 2-3 weeks and keep them up for months. When you reduce the size of a habit to the point it’s not intimidating or stressful at all, you can adopt many habits with ease. And I believe worrying about a perfect streak when starting out causes unnecessary stress. We should aim to increase frequency.
@therealbrandonwilson Yes! And we don’t give ourselves credit for the habits we’ve already developed!
@jasonleow I fell off the 5AM bandwagon, but it’s a habit I cherish. The main habit I’m super proud of now is being off sugar. I’m starting to incorporate more habits to support that one (towards the goal of losing weight), such as going on daily walks. Not sure I’m ready for one meal a day 😭
I love a list! Right now I’m working on the psychological habit of breaking my focus: a mindfulness bell, a tidying reminder, and using Alexa to play affirmations throughout the day. Things that take my attention away from whatever rabbit hole I’ve fallen down.