8 Habit Traps to Avoid
There are so many little things you do, or don’t do, each day that shape the quality of your life over the longer term.
Whether it’s flossing your teeth, contacting potential clients, doing push-ups, or saving money, it might not matter today or even six months from now. However, it can matter in a major way down the road.
Imagine the difference between two identical people over 10 years:
One saves 10% of their income. The other saves nothing.
One brushes their teeth every day. The other isn’t very consistent.
One reads something useful each day for 20 minutes. The other doesn’t.
One exercises for 30 minutes each day. The other prefers to watch TV.
One practices the piano for 30 minutes each day. The other doesn’t.
What would the differences be in 10 years?
The first person will have a healthy savings account, have all of their teeth, gained the knowledge from hundreds of books, be in great shape, and know how to play the piano.
The other won’t have any of those things.
You can rely on positive habits to change your future for the better.
Building a new habit is much easier when you avoid the common pitfalls that can derail your efforts.
Avoid these mistakes when trying to develop new habits:
Trying to build too many habits at once. Changing a little at a time is the key to ultimately changing a lot. We feel uncomfortable when trying to change too much at once. How many habits can you build at one time? That depends on the habits you’re considering, but less is definitely more here.
Succeeding with one new habit then adding another is better than trying five, getting overwhelmed and giving up.
A lack of patience. Habits can take a while to take hold. You might have heard that it takes 21 days to build a new habit, but that’s a bit of a myth. The timeframes vary widely but can be months. The average is 66 days. If you’ve started, and you’re continuing, it’s working. Have patience.
Failing to prepare for the obstacles. Think about the challenges you’ll face and plan for ways to deal with them.
For instance, if you want to go to the gym after work, but the gym is too far away, or the traffic is horrible at that time, it’s going to be very difficult to be successful. Plan for going at a time that will be easier for you or pick a gym that’s closer to your home or work.
Choosing a habit that won’t have a great impact on your life. Since you can only create a couple of habits at a time, be strategic and pick something that will have cascade effects.
For example, meditation can impact your life in many ways.
Logging off work earlier makes you calmer, gives you more time to connect with friends and family, and increases the likelihood of you getting outside for the positive benefits of nature and exercise.
Trying to change too quickly. Remember, lower the bar and build up to the habit you want to acquire.
Do one push-up. Take an evening walk for one minute. Aim to rekindle that breakfast habit for one morning each week.
Get in the habit of doing the action and then increase the duration or frequency. Make it so easy that it’s almost embarrassing to not do it.
Believing that slow progress isn’t relevant. It can be hard to believe that doing one push-up will ever matter. But one leads to two. Two becomes five. Five eventually becomes 25 or more.
A client began taking the stairs instead of the lift at work. At first, she could only make it up a single flight before being too puffed and taking the lift the rest of the way. After a few months she was using the stairs all the way to her desk on the fourth floor.
How much progress have you made in the last year? Maybe going from one to 25 push-ups over the course of a few months might not be so bad after all.
Focusing too much on the benefit of the habit. Results can take a while to appear. For example, if you adopt a walking habit to lose weight, you’re not going to jump on the scale after your first walk and see any weight loss.
Focus on the development of the habit. Be excited about growing your new habit in and of itself.
Failing to set up your environment for success. Your environment matters. You’re more likely to read that book if it’s there on your bedside table with your reading glasses right on top.
Give yourself the best chance of success – identify and remove friction points between you and the thing you want to do.
Don’t underestimate the power of positive habits … or the negative impact of poor habits. We often cruise along without thinking too much about our habits, but that doesn’t mean they don’t matter. Creating effective habits will lead you to a life you enjoy!
Until next week,
Take care of yourself and others
Madeleine
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