How many times have you made the decision that you want to start a new healthy habit? Eat a healthier diet, run regularly or start a daily meditation practice?

You start with great intentions but then for one reason or another the new habit starts to fade, leaving you feeling that you lack willpower and have failed. What if will power or motivation is not enough to form new habits? What if there is more to it and forming healthy habits relies on more factors. Research by BJ Fogg has shown that behaviour changes when motivation, ability and a prompt occur at the same time. Based on this current research, here are a few simple steps you can take to help you achieve your desired habits:

Start Small & Make it Easy

Focus on small actions you can start now, ideally something that takes less than 60 seconds. This will wire in new habits, which you can then grow naturally.  For example, if you want to start meditating on a regular basis, start with just a minute a day. We often try to do too much at once as our motivation is high but then we cannot maintain it.

Anchor to an existing part of your routine

There are certain habits that you do without thinking everyday, such as brushing your teeth, making a hot drink, having a shower. Use these existing habits to help you introduce new behaviours. Using the example of meditation, use the time it takes to boil the kettle to complete your minute of mediation or do it immediately after your shower.

Create or remove a prompt 

If you do not have a prompt then your motivation to do the desired habit doesn’t matter. No prompt, no behaviour change. This can be really simple, if you want to start meditating daily, set an alarm on your phone for a time when you know you are likely to be able to carry it out.

This also works if you are trying to stop a behaviour. For example, if you decided you wanted to            reduce your sugar intake but there were sugary snacks in the house it is very hard to say no. You need to remove the prompt (the sugary food) to help you achieve your behaviour change.

People change by feeling good about themselves not by feeling bad. There are a couple of things you can do on a daily basis to help you stay in a positive mindset.

• Write the phrase “I change best by feeling good, not by feeling bad” put this somewhere so you will see it regularly and notice how this helps with how you feel.

• Start each day by using a phrase such:  “Today is going to be a great day”. Do this is a soon as you wake up, it takes less then 10 seconds and is anchored to an existing part of your routine (getting out of bed). Try to do this even on days when you don’t feel like it. You can always amend the phrase to something like “Today is gong to be a great day somehow”.

I would love to know how you get on and what habits you are trying to implement. Leave a comment or get in touch via email sarah@root2health.co.uk

If you would like some support and accountability with any new healthy habits then I offer 1:1 coaching.

Sarah x