We all know how it goes. We commit ourselves to starting a new health habit with all of the best intentions, but then holidays, children, illness, and just life get in the way. How can you build a new healthy habit that you can stick to?
Here are my 5 top tips for habit building
1) Start small. Smaller than you think. It can kind of rain on your parade when you're all excited to start something new but feel like you're selling yourself short. Let's face it. It's not so exciting to just run to the end of the block if you want to train for a 5k. But that might actually be what you need for long term success. Start with something that you can do for as little as 2 minutes regularly. Everyone can squeeze 2 minutes of something into their day!
2) Get positive feedback. If you're going to stick with something, it has to feel good! What do you enjoy about your new habit? If it's running, do you like getting outdoors? Do you appreciate the time to step away from the office and screens? Do you enjoy improved concentration afterwards? If you do too much, you're going to hurt more than heal and you want this to feel good!
3) Create a plan with context. A trick to focus your brain is to commit to something super specific and context-based. For example, rather than say I want to run 3 days a week, say, I'm going to run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, for 20 minutes, around my neighborhood, beginning after I brush my teeth in the morning. That's so specific that you can imagine it clearly in your mind. Procrastination feeds on vagueness, so beat it down by clarifying your commitments. Try this formula: "I will do _____ at _____ time at _____ (place)."
4) A commitment to yourself. Mark down your workout times in your calendar, just like you would any other appointment. It's true that sometimes a pressing need forces us to change or cancel an appointment, and you can do this where necessary, but really think about why you're cancelling, just like you would when cancelling a commitment to anyone else.
5) Keep it simple. If you're new to running or coming back after a long hiatus, don't get sidetracked by fancy workout plans or specialized gear (except for properly fitting running shoes). You can't optimize a habit that you don't have. If you want to begin running, the most important thing that you need to do is consistently run!
6) Set short, medium, and long-term goals. Short-term goals can keep you excited by the progress you're making toward something that is almost in reach. Long-term goals can motivate you to stick with it even when the going gets tough and to push you beyond your perceived limits. Medium-term goals are additional ways to reward yourself along the way that are more satisfying than a long-term goal.
Here is a personal example from a different physical activity. For as long as I can remember, being able to do a pull-up has eluded me. I set out several times to train regularly to be able to do one but always felt defeated by how little I saw any results and eventually gave up.
This last time, I devoted myself to a plan for consistency, with the faith that if I kept it up for long enough, results would come. The short-term goal was to be able to do a certain number of pullups using a very thick band. The medium-term goal was to be able to do at least one pullup with a thin band. The long-term goal is to be able to do one unassisted pullup. I'm not there quite yet, but I can say that it is incredibly satisfying to have reached my medium-term goal.
When I bought the thin band online years ago, thinking it would be strong enough to get me started, I was disheartened to find that I couldn't get my chin near the bar with that little help. Today, about 8 years later (that's how many failed attempts and breaks between attempts there have been, friends), I can do multiple reps with that same band. It's efforts like this that prove to me that anyone can see great progress in their physical development with enough commitment.
Atomic Habits
Atomic Habits by James Clear is an amazing book that helped me flesh out what I already knew about what it takes to build a new habit: consistency, starting small, being specific, etc. But he goes beyond that to explain why it works and the little details that can help us reach success.
One of the things that he addresses first that seemed too wide-ranging to place above as a tip, is identity building. If you want to start a new habit of running regularly, you should identify yourself as an athlete. I couldn't agree more than the messages we tell ourself direct our behavior. As soon as we really believe that we are an athlete, we will be able to more easily justify spending the time and sometimes money needed to support this identity. We will be more okay with getting sweaty. We will want to eat more nutritious foods because they supply us with the energy that we need. We will go to sleep on time so that we can wake up the next day for an early morning workout. So many of the supporting habits that help us with new routines and habits require a change of or an addition to our identity. Maybe that sounds a little scary, but isn't it also a little exciting?
If you're serious about starting a new habit, I highly recommend this book.