You embed behaviors in your life by repeating them. Over and over again.
There are behaviors you live with every day and may keep for the rest of your life. Some were learned in childhood, others throughout your life. They add value and give you stability:
Walk – speak – read – write – ride a bike – study – play an instrument – drive a car – play basketball – learn languages – work out.
You feed, or grow, your habits by repeating them, often without notice. Some of these habits benefit you, others are clearly causing you harm.
That’s why at some point you arrive at that moment when you decide there’s something you want to change:
Smoking – hurtful relationships – sleeping in – eating fast food – nail biting – sitting all day – wasting time.
Selecting a behavior that you want to eliminate is the first step – but since you’ve ‘fed’ this behavior for some time, it’s actually etched into your neural pathways. So if there’s something you want to change up, you’ll have to replace it with a new and different pattern.
If you’re ready to develop a new habit, it will require the work to consciously decide to make this change. And then to repeat it. Again and again. The key here is that you want to change the old habit more than you want to continue doing it. And you’re giving yourself another habit that will one day replace the old one. The more you repeat your new habit, the more permanent it becomes.
Everyone is different, but for most people a new habit takes an average of 66 days to become your new normal. It’s all about being consistent with repeating this new behavior. If you mess up every now and then, don’t stress out. Keeping at it is more important.
The beauty about being on this journey is that it’s a process, it takes time. Rarely can you change something up in an instant, or 21 days. You have to decide to put in the work.
What is it you’d like to change up in your life?
You’ve got this.