Building New Habits

Building new habits is not as easy as you would think. It takes patience. It takes about sixty-six days to create a new habit. You must stick to it. Keep at the behavior you are trying to make into a habit. Bad habits are easier. It takes dedication to create a good habit.

Do the behavior daily to ingrain it into your daily routine. Begin with a simpler form of your habit. Simple things stick in our heads. I use a to-do list to develop a habit. It’s how I created my habit of writing in my journal every day. I did that years ago and now it feels off until I write in my journal. Early in 2019, I decided to meditate every day. I have done so for more than two hundred days now. I know that because I use an app called Insight Timer to do so.

Determination is the key. So is consistency. If you work to do something consistently and are determined to accomplish whatever it is, you will pull it off. Don’t expect instant results. You won’t get them. You must exercise dogged persistence to achieve a habit. Unlike bad habits, good ones are those we intend to create. Bad habits come naturally; good ones take a bit of time. That’s because a bad habit comes when we don’t pay attention. If you want to develop the habit of writing every day. Set aside a time every day to sit down and write. Don’t be concerned with quality writing. Think of quantity. Say to yourself, “I’m going to write a paragraph every day.” Then sit down and write a paragraph a day. Do that every day for two months and you will have developed a daily writing habit.

I make it sound easy, but I know it isn’t that simple. If everything came easily, we wouldn’t value it so much. Keep that thought in mind. Some days you will sit staring at the blank page and have no words. Write something down anyway. It doesn’t matter if it’s good or bad. You goal is to just write. Don’t lose sight of the goal. This applies no matter what you are trying to make into a habit. If you don’t feel it on a particular day, force it.

Normally, I wouldn’t advise someone to force themselves to do something, but in developing a habit, it’s what you must do. So just do it. Make up your mind to do it and do it. If you find yourself faltering, review what it is you are trying to form into a habit. Do you want it in actuality? Reaffirm your desire for the habit and talk yourself into it. After the first month, it should start to become easier. After two months, it becomes automatic. That’s all you need to do.

Whatever you want to make a habit of doing, it will take time, persistence and determination to turn it into a habit. Know that and accept it. It won’t happen any other way. So just do it.

About pebblepup

I am not one who is comfortable talking about myself but here goes. I enjoy writing, family history, and reading. I decided to do this blog because I wanted to try something new. I decided to make it a weekly blog because I wasn't sure that I could keep up with a daily one, and monthly seemed like I was writing a magazine. I think I did ok with my choices. You'll notice that there are not a lot of graphics on my site. That's because there are graphics plastered everywhere on the Internet and those sites sometimes take forever to load. This blog is a place where you can kick back, relax and be ready to be amused. At least I hope I willbamuse you. This blog is on a variety of subjects from my ficitional cat agency, the FFL, which is monthly, to instructional blogs to editorials, which are my opinions only. I admit that I don't know everything and could be wrong -- I frequently am. Now, stop reading about me and read what I have to say!