“Why is it so damn hard to change bad habits?” I get this question frequently from clients. Bad habits like negative thinking, eating poorly, not exercising, sleeping too little, drinking too much, and attracting the wrong types of people are some of the bad habits that commonly get mentioned. What is a habit?
According to Habit Theory, a habit is a learned behavior that becomes reflexive over time. The behavior is often triggered by a certain context. For example, you may automatically go brush your teeth after finishing breakfast as part of your morning routine. Say you and your friends started meeting Saturday mornings at Starbucks for lattes. Months later it’s now become a habit. Now Saturdays have become your cue to go to Starbucks for lattes.
Any behavior repeated often enough and long enough can become a habit. Eating poorly, not exercising, attracting the wrong people, not getting enough sleep, and being negative, are examples of bad behaviors that can easily become bad habits. If we’re going to make lasting changes we must be willing to change bad behaviors that have become bad habits
Ask yourself three questions to see how motivated you are to make a change:
1. Am I ready to move the action forward?
2. By when do I want to take the first step?
3. What do I need to make this a priority?
There's a price to be paid for changing and some are unwilling to pay the cost. It could be a dollar cost (paying for a health coach, had to get that in), a physical cost (exercising), a time cost (setting aside time to exercise, meditate or stretch) or a spiritual cost (leaving a toxic relationship) just to name a few. Then again, sometimes there’s a much greater cost to doing nothing. It’s easy to get stuck in a rut. Besides, change can be scary and seemingly overwhelming. Take small steps and go ahead anyways. The devil you don’t know is usually better than the devil that you know!
What can you start doing today to change a bad habit? Just pick one to start. Make a behavioral change that’s so ridiculously simple that you can’t fail. Want to get up earlier to start your day? Set your alarm one minute earlier. Want to start exercising at home. Start with one minute. Want to eat more veggies? Start with one leaf of spinach. Sounds silly but it works and gives you something to build off of. Be patient and take small steps. Big changes take time. Pretty soon you’ll be running on autopilot because habits require no thought at all. It’ll be like wiping your butt after a good poop. Nothing too it!
Thanks for reading this edition of The Z Spot Blog. Sign in to subscribe to my blog. As always I appreciate you and what you bring to the world. Live in health, peace and love!!
Zo
#habits#behavior change#healthy eating#healthy living#vegan
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