Most of us have daily habits that we would consider to not be the healthiest, even if it’s just something little. And some people have some big changes to make or several different things we want to change. So, how do we change daily habits for better health and stick with it in the long run? Are there steps we can take to increase our chances of success? As with anything worth doing, it’s going to take some effort and planning. If it didn’t you probably would have easily made the change already, right? That doesn’t mean it has to be complicated though either.
Steps To Change Daily Habits
Start with your “Why”
Start with the reason, your “Why”. You’re never going to change anything if the outcome isn’t worth the effort. If you don’t care that much, why go out of your way to change anything. So, the first thing you’ll want to do is to write down why you want to make a change in your daily habits that aren’t serving you or helping you reach your health goals.
When you write down your “why”, make sure you also jot down what the outcome of making the change would be. What will changing get for you? How will it change the way you feel and how you live your life? Get as detailed as you can. Imagine yourself being successful at changing your habits and what you will be feeling and doing that is different than what’s happening already. Do you have less pain, have more energy, or feel more confident and feel more comfortable taking part in activities that you haven’t felt able to? If you can’t imagine your life being any different, you probably aren’t going to make the effort to change daily habits.
Know what needs to change
After you figure out why the change is worth the effort, you’ll want to find out what specific habits are holding you back from reaching your goal. Document the bad habits and make a list of the alternative healthier habits you could replace it with. This is important because change be extremely difficult to make if you just eliminate a daily habit without replacing it with something to take it’s place. If your bad habit is eating too much “junk” food, you’re not going to just eat nothing to eliminate the bad habit, are you? Definitely not going to work! You have to eat something.
After writing it down, keep this list somewhere that it’s easy to access when you need a reminder. Maybe store it in the notes on your phone. You’ll probably only need it in the beginning and won’t have to look at it as much once the new habit starts to form.
Plan ahead to change daily habits
Obviously there will be some thought, effort, and preparation to make in forming new habits. Otherwise you would have done it already. You’ll need to plan ahead to implement the new habits that you want to form so you don’t fall back to your old ways just because you weren’t prepared. What are the things you need to do ahead of time to make sure your plan works? Figure that out and then do what needs to be done.
If you end up skipping your workouts most days of the week because you’re too tired, then you need to start planning to fix what’s making you so tired. Are you staying up to late unnecessarily, not getting the proper nutrition, or not staying hydrated? You can’t make a successful change if you don’t know what’s causing the problem in the first place.
Track your progress
Tracking your progress when trying to change daily habits can be helpful. You can track how often and in what ways you made healthier choices. You might even want to write down how you felt after making the healthier choice so you can remember that feeling next time you have to make a similar choice. Seeing both the progress in changing your behaviors and progress towards your goals can be very motivating and keep you on track. Even if you slip up here and there, you’ll be able to look back at the progress you’ve made and know that it hasn’t been for nothing.
It doesn’t really matter how you track these things, as long as it works for you. If pen and paper works for you, great! If not, maybe on your phone or a calendar.
Be realistic
A sure way to not succeed is to make things overwhelming. Don’t try to change too many things at once. Yes, it might be tempting to try to go all out in the beginning when you’re feeling really motivated, but it probably won’t last and eventually won’t work either. One thing at a time will likely give you the greatest chance at success.
If you have a big goal with lots of habits that need to be changed, break it down into smaller goals. Make mini goals leading to your overall goal. Along with those mini goals, choose one habit to change and build from there as you go. For example, if you want to lose 50 lbs, start with a 5 lb weight loss goal. Along with the first weight loss goal you might choose to change a habit, like, replacing sugary drinks with water. That’s a pretty simple change, right! It’s a lot less overwhelming than saying you need to lose 50 pounds and you are going to change your eating habits, start exercising more, drinking more water, get more sleep, and work on stress management all at the same time.
You Can Change Daily Habits!
Even if you’ve failed at changing habits in the past, I hope you know that it can be done. You just need to know why it’s important to you, plan ahead, and set small manageable goals and actions. It won’t happen over night, but neither did forming your bad habit. The time it takes to successfully change your habits might vary depending on how much effort it takes, but if it’s worth changing, it’s worth continuing to try. You’ve got this!
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