Working On Habits

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Studies:

 

Some studies says, it takes 21, some says 66 and even some says 254 days for forming a habit. For the time being, lets not get into the numbers.  

It also says, number varies person to person, based on commitment and dedication of that person towards it, the discipline a person has and the ability to work hard. 

Keeping all this aside, lets focus on how can we make a habit? If you get this, the number of days and other factors are solely depends on you.

What Is Habit?

 

First, it is important to understand what the habit really is? 

For me, habit is such an act performed by my mind and body in passive way. For example, to wake up in the morning, say at 7:30 am sharp - with or without alarm.

Although there are both types of habit – good and bad, today we are discussing about how to form a habit. Good one, you can develop; bad one, you can break. This is not going to be happen all of a sudden and hence you need to be patient in the entire process.

In my definition, developing a habit is a process of training over the period of time after which our mind and body could perform a task passively i.e., on its own and without forcing to do so. And therefore, to form any of the habit, the essential thing at first pace is to train our mind and body altogether.

It all starts with our own preparation and commitment towards developing a new habit. So, one need to commit with himself or herself that 'I am going to make it happen successfully for none other than myself'.

How To Start?

Make a list of ‘habits’ you want to adopt.

Give the number to each of them based on their priority. For example, skipping afternoon sleep is first priority and reading the newspaper in that time would be the second one to keep these in series.

Separate out top 5 of them which you really wanted to focus on.

My suggestion, choose the top most of those five to start with. Once you gain confidence, you can work upon the rest of.

There is no limit as such. Even you can choose multiple as per your capacity and need. For example, I will skip my afternoon sleep and instead of that, I will read newspaper. So here, I will break a habit of sleeping in noon and will start a new one of reading newspaper in the same time.

How To Sustain?

The real struggle for a person starts here. It is really easy to start with, but one can find difficult to keep it continue. Not an issue. 

Easy step is, make someone accountable for it. That might be your mom, dad, spouse, teacher or anyone you choose. Appoint a person who will ask you about your progress daily. The care is, choose a person who has a genuine interest in your well-being and development. 

It has certain limitations as well. Every time said person could not available to ask you. Even if so, but if you are not responding well, he / she might lost interest in asking you and so, this accountability concept might get lost. Further, I understand, some of you don’t want to make anyone accountable. All right. That’s even more better. 

Being a management person, I use this trick for myself. Make a logbook. How? Just take a notebook or a diary and make a table in it. Make columns for the habits you want to make. For example, first column would be ‘Skip Afternoon Sleep’, second column would be ‘Read Newspaper’. And below that, make rows for Day 1, Day 2, Day 3 and so on.

 

Now, the action plan is, I will put a simple tick mark once I did that activity on that day. In above case, suppose, I skipped my afternoon sleep, I will put a tick mark in that column. Similarly, for other habits.

Self-Motivation:

 

Science says, our brain could not work monotonously on a single act. In such a situation, it gets bored and tries to escape from it. This is the point where most of the people fails to inculcate a habit. Therefore, we need to understand, how our brain works and how can we take help of it in sustaining our practice.

Creativity: 

Our brain just loves creativity. That is because, when you do something creative or of some more interest to your brain, the neurons starts communicating with each other and it creates synapse (linking of neurons). This synapse creation is an exercise for the brain. And when it happens, our brain gets charged. Overall, this process keeps our brain awake and is interesting for brain itself. Therefore, whenever such a thing is going to happen, brain starts taking interest and automatically helps us to build a new habit. 

So, the suggestion on this point is, when you start to work on your habit, try to make it creative. For example, in above case, it may happen, I will fall asleep while reading the newspaper itself. So, how can I make it creative? I will read by standing in kitchen. Or I will read it from last page to first page. Or even I will read it holding upside down. You can make it on your own.

Appreciation:

Who don’t like the appreciation? Off-course, all of us like it. 

Likewise, our brain too. Yes, our brain also needs an appreciation. After all, its helping you in developing a new habit, isn’t it? So, it also needs an appreciation in some form or the other.

How can I appreciate my brain? 

Once you complete that particular set of task, give yourself a small treat. This treat could be anything that gives you happiness. 

For example, for entire week, if I am successful in skipping my afternoon sleep, I will watch a comedy movie on the weekend. You can put as such simple rewards for yourself. 

Care in this regard is, take care of your health and do not disturb other people. For example, although you like it most, but avoid the things like eating a burger or listening music in loud, etc. and that too on daily basis. Else, that will create another ‘bad’ habit.

Penalty:

If I am appreciating myself on successful accomplishment, isn’t it worth to penalize myself if I did not work on it? Truly it is! 

First about care, don’t make it too harsh or too rude with yourself. Keep it simple but equally effective. 

For example, if somehow, I felt asleep today afternoon, I will wash my socks on my own (if you are not used to it). 

Choose such an act which is a kind of value addition but actually you hate it other time or you have some another system to perform the same. In such a situation, your brain does not like it, but as a punishment, it has to do so. And if you decided to have such kind of punishment, your brain definitely try to avoid that punishment and so, will help you to work on your habit. That the real motto is!

Self experiments:

For me, above things has been proved to be sufficient to inculcate any new habit in myself or even to break some of those in that case.  

Well, advising other without self-implementation is kind of unethical. So, before end up, putting here few of my habits:

1. I start my day with reading 'To Do List' for the day which I wrote last night. 
2. Whole day, I drink warm water.
3. I take coffee at 4 pm and that too without sugar.
4. I skipped eating all kind of bakery items.

I hope, this article would equally be helpful for you. In case, if not, please do not hesitate to ask your questions in comments section below.

Trouble?

Although it seems easy for me to write and for you to read here, I am aware, how really difficult in practical life it is, not to start but sustain a habit. So, if you have any questions on implementing it, put those as well, in comment section below.

Suggestion?

If you have some additional knowledge on this topic, do share with me also; I would also like to learn more. 

If you have some suggestions for me to write on particular topic, suggest that in the comment section below. 

#miPratik