Have you ever struggled to break a bad habit, or even to establish a new and healthy one? If you have, then you are in good company. Will power alone is seldom enough to bring about change but establishing new and healthy habits for yourself needn't be a struggle.
Preparation, practice and persistence are three essential steps to help you on your way to success. Let me tell you some more.
1. Preparation
Aim to write yourself a goal for changing your habit and make sure that you only use positive words that reflects the new actions and behaviour that you do want, rather than describing something that you want to avoid. For example, your subconscious mind will respond much more positively to the statement 'I intend to be a non smoker by the end of the month' rather than 'I'm going to try and give up cigarettes'! It's also helpful to move away from the language of obligation such as I 'should', 'ought' or 'must' and instead simply state 'I intend' or 'I am' and make sure your outcome is measurable and has a final date for completion.
It's also really helpful to give yourself some structure to help set yourself up for a successful outcome. For example, you could put some post it reminders on your fridge door or bathroom mirror to remind yourself of your new goal or activity.
After all if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.
2. Practice
Ask yourself if you need to establish a new routine to support your new habit, for example, if you want to become a non smoker you could try holding the cigarette only in your non dominant hand. This will probably feel a little awkward and uncomfortable and may help to stop you smoking a cigarette without really being aware of what you are doing.
Mental rehearsal is another useful way to reinforce your new choices. It's a technique used by all the top athletes to help enhance their performance and if it works for them then it can work for you too.
3. Persistence
If you find yourself struggling at any stage then it is probably worthwhile enlisting the help of a trusted friend or a professional Coach who can help to keep you on track. Most people will agree that it can make a tremendous difference just knowing that there is someone else on your side who is checking in on your progress.
In my own practice I tend to ask my clients how committed they are to achieving their goal on a scale of one to ten, where a score of one reflects minimal commitment and ten means they are unstoppable. So consider the level of commitment you have for changing your habit now ? How did your score?
On the whole I find that a score of 7or less tends to mean that you won't really have sufficient commitment to see your goal through. So if this is the case for you, ask yourself what you need to do to raise your level of commitment to an 8 or above. Of course if your score is really low, it may mean that you aren't really committed to changing this habit at all, so be honest about that.
Finally, celebrate! Finding some small but significant way to celebrate your successes on a regular basis will give you vital feedback that you are well on your way to achieving your goal.
Remember that changing any habit, has a lot to do with persistence. Some habits can be changed very quickly whilst others may take weeks or even months and research shows us that on average we make a resolution 5 times before we actually get around to doing anything different.
So don't let that be you. Make yourself some new choices today, and start looking forward to that feeling of success.
For more information about health coaching, please contact Erica at healthcoach@sonic.net.
