Creating new habits doesn't always mean old habits were bad.

If you have new goals you want to reach, it just means finding the habits that get you there. The key is to look at your goals, list what you have and what you need to accomplish them, then see what habits need to stay and which ones need to be added.

If it's saving a certain amount of money for the year, break that down per month. Then list out all of your outgoing expenses, including auto-draft memberships to things. You may find that cancelling memberships to certain apps you no longer use may just be the right step.

Maybe it's losing weight, and you have your goal weight in mind. Break it down to a doable amount per month you can strive for and write down your "WHY?". Then get with someone who can help you, like US! :) And get a free nutritional consult.

Now back to YOU and these amazing new habits how you can make sure they stick this year., 

Keep in mind, adding changes to your daily routine initially are a bit uncomfortable because they have put a kink in a routine you've grown comfortable with for some time.

Not to worry, in just a couple of short weeks sticking with the new habits, they become the new "normal" and you'll find yourself on a new winning streak that requires little effort to maintain.

1. COMMIT TO 30 DAYS

Three to four weeks is all the time you need to make a habit automatic. If you can make it through the initial conditioning phase, it becomes much easier to sustain. A month is a good block of time to commit to a change since it easily fits in your calendar.

2. MAKE IT DAILY

Consistency is critical if you want to make a habit stick. If you want to start exercising, go to the gym every day for your first thirty days. Going a couple times a week will make it harder to form the habit. Activities you do once every few days are trickier to lock in as habits.

3. START SIMPLE

Don’t try to completely change your life in one day. It is easy to get over-motivated and take on too much. If you wanted to study two hours a day, first make the habit to go for thirty minutes and build on that.

4. REMIND YOURSELF 

Every day have a list with your new goals listed. Every habit you accomplished that day, mark it as completed with a check! When you cross off that last habit you completed for the day, look at the entire list you accomplished. Take a moment revisit the day and what it took for you do complete it. Then look in the mirror and tell yourself, "GOOD JOB" and HIGH-5 yourself in the mirror.

This is how you build self-confidence each day, and is a very important part to building these new habits.

5. STAY CONSISTENT

The more consistent your habit the easier it will be to stick. If you want to start exercising, try going at the same time, to the same place for your thirty days. When cues like time of day, place and circumstances are the same in each case it is easier to stick.

6. GET A BUDDY

Find someone who can do it with you and use that to keep you accountable. That positive peer competitive nature will help keep you on track and can put a fun element to it overall.

7. FORM A TRIGGER

A trigger is a ritual you use right before executing your habit. If you wanted to wake up earlier, this could mean waking up in exactly the same way each morning. If you wanted to quit smoking you could practice snapping your fingers each time you felt the urge to pick up a cigarette.

Author Mel Robbins uses what she calls The 5 Second Rule, where she will count backwards like getting ready to blast off like a rocket. This disrupts our mind from negotiating ourselves out of getting the next habit done for the day.

Simply tell yourself, "In 5 seconds I'm going to ... 5-4-3-2-1!" Then you jump into it.

8. REPLACE LOST NEEDS

If you are giving up something in your habit, make sure you are adequately replacing any needs you’ve lost. If watching television gave you a way to relax, you could take up meditation or reading as a way to replace that same need.

9. BE IMPERFECT

Don’t expect all your attempts to change habits to be successful immediately. New habits are just that ... new. You won't have it perfected or seamless. Try your best, but expect a few bumps along the way and allow yourself the flexibility of how you get it done. The process doesn't have to be pretty. The accomplishment is more than important than the way you get it done.

10. USE "BUT"

When you start to think negative thoughts, use the word “but” to interrupt it. “I’m no good at this, BUT, if I just stick with it I get better each day.”

11. REMOVE TEMPTATION

Restructure your environment so it won’t tempt you in the first thirty days. Remove junk food from your house, cancel your cable subscription etc. so you won’t need to struggle with willpower later.

12. ASSOCIATE WITH ROLE MODELS

Spend more time with people who model the habits you want to mirror. A recent study found that having a wealthy friend indicated you were more likely to become wealthier. You become what you spend time around. As it's often said, we are the average of the 5 people closest to us.

13. RUN IT AS AN EXPERIMENT

Withhold judgment until after a month has past and use it as an experiment in behavior. Experiments can’t fail, they just have different results so it will give you a different perspective on changing your habit.

14. SWISH

Visualize yourself performing the bad habit. Next visualize yourself pushing aside the bad habit and performing an alternative. Finally, end that sequence with an image of yourself in a highly positive state. Envision yourself facing the old habit and pushing it aside to accomplish the new one and the feeling you know you'll feel when you do. Do it a few times until you automatically go through the pattern before executing the old habit.

 15. WRITE IT DOWN

A piece of paper with a resolution on it isn’t that important. Writing that resolution is. Writing makes your ideas more clear and focuses you on your end result.

16. KNOW THE BENEFITS

Familiarize yourself with the benefits of making a change. Get books that show the benefits of regular exercise. Notice any changes in energy levels after you take on a new diet. Imagine being debt free and what it will be like making that last payment.

17. KNOW THE PAIN

You should also be aware of the consequences. Exposing yourself to realistic information about the downsides of not making a change will give you added motivation.

18. DO IT FOR YOURSELF

Don’t worry about all the things you “should” have as habits. Instead tool your habits towards your goals and the things that motivate you and the ones that make you better each day. 

Remember, one of the greatest perspectives is that Life overall is about the journey and not the destination itself. Don't get us wrong, we need goals. Without them we don't have something specific to work towards. But in the end it's about who we've become along the way that matters more than the goal attained.

#BalancedStrong

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