It only takes around 21 days for most people to cement a new habit into their lives. After this time it becomes second nature and part of your everyday routine. It’s important on your self-development journey to work on the negative aspects of your life. You need to change your bad habits, and your negative thoughts. However, you need to replace these negative traits with new positive thoughts and healthy habits. This will create lasting change in all areas of your life and ensure that you integrate these changes fully into your life. When we change our mindset, we change our actions and our actions change the course of our lives.

Consistency is key when forming new positive habits in our lives. Your brain is going to resist and have thoughts of giving up your healthy habits. This is because it has been programmed in your old behaviour and thought patterns for so long.

Set yourself the challenge for just one month to work at creating a new positive habit. Ensure that you stick to it even when you feel like quitting. You need to remember why you wanted to form this new habit in the first place. This will help you to focus on the outcome long-term and keep you motivated.

Think About What Habits to Create

Think about the things you’d most like to improve about yourself and your life. Then, commit to starting a new positive habit around these goals.

If you want to be more confident for example, you could commit to practicing positive self-talk daily. Additionally, you could try meditation, practicing open body language, or reading a book on confidence. Furthermore, you could sign up for a confidence challenge for the month. You could challenge yourself to do something out of your comfort zone daily, or find a confidence course, etc. Then, set a daily reminder on your phone to practice this new habit. This will ensure that your goal stays at the forefront of your brain.

How to Create Healthy Habits

Journaling is an amazing way to get to the root of what you really want. It can help you to begin to create momentum and positive action.

Here are some journaling prompts that will help you figure out what new habit to create. How you will stick to it, and what to do if you feel like you’re falling off track with your new habit…

What Area of My Life Do I Want to Improve the Most?

This will help you to pick what new habit you want to form. Take a few moments to think about your life as a whole and which area you feel you need to prioritise currently.

You may feel like you could improve your health, fitness, finances, mental well-being, productivity, confidence, career, mindset, etc.

Simply write down anything that comes to mind and think about how you could get closer to reaching your goal in this area.

You may decide that you want to improve your health and fitness levels. So, you could create a new positive habit centered on this goal.

You may commit to doing some sort of movement daily, drinking a bottle of water when you wake up, or, cutting down your coffee or fizzy drink intake. You could create a monthly fitness challenge, make a smoothie every morning, take a healthy lunch to work, etc.

How Do I Want to Feel?

Think about how you want to feel daily and write down anything that comes to mind.

It could be things like being confident, happy, fit, healthy, empowered, motivated, strong, in control of your emotions, financially stable, stress-free, etc.

Now think about how this new habit will make you feel, think about all the positive feelings that will come from you creating and sticking to this new positive habit, and jot them down.

What Do I have to do to Create this New Habit?

What actions do you need to take to maintain this new habit and what kind of person do you have to become?

You may write things like getting up an hour earlier, not listening to other people, meditating, or setting reminders on your phone. Moreover, it could be envisioning your best self, believing in yourself, being kind to yourself, eating nourishing foods, practicing self-care, etc.

How am I Going to Feel When this New Habit is Second Nature to me?

Think about how you’re going to feel when this amazing new positive habit is ingrained into your subconscious and it’s as automatic as brushing your teeth.

Envision yourself in the future by having this new habit. How will you feel, act, look, etc?

I’m sure you would feel things like proud, happy, motivated, empowered, healthier, calm, content, etc. Write down every emotion that you will feel after adopting this new healthy habit into your life.

What am I Going to do if I Feel like Giving up on My New Habit?

If you feel like quitting or you’re beginning to slip up on your new habit, you will need a plan to help you get back on track.

There are inevitably going to be days when you want to revert to old habits because they’ve been ingrained into your life for so long. So, it’s important to have a plan of action for when these moments come up.

You may write things like going for a walk, envisioning yourself in the future feeling proud of yourself, meditating, or, journaling. Furthermore, you could take time to think before you act, practice self-care, etc.

“Good habits are just as addictive as bad habits but are a lot more rewarding.”– Harvey MacKay

Summary

Finally, it’s important to commit yourself to this new habit for a month. Remember, you don’t need to wait for the beginning of a week or month to start, in fact, the sooner you start the better.

Promise yourself that for the next 30 days, you’re going to do this new habit every day without fail and stick to it.

It’s only a month at the end of the day and this goal is important and beneficial for your life so what do you have to lose!?

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”– Aristotle

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