A Quick Guide to Building Healthy Habits
By Emily Grace
Emily, a certified holistic health and wellbeing coach, talks us through the connection between healthy habits and a healthy mindset, where to start, and how creating these healthy habits will help us find lasting fulfilment that improves our daily lives and overall wellbeing.
A habit can be defined as a small decision we make, or an action we take on a day to day basis that becomes ingrained in our everyday routine. A healthy habit is one in which can significantly improve an aspect of our wellbeing and provide benefits to both our mental and physical health. According to researchers at Dukes University, habits account for about 40 percent of our behaviours on any given day. With this accounting for almost half of our daily behaviours, it is surely worth reflecting for a moment on our own healthy habits that we have in place and how best to integrate new ones.
In today’s modern world, we can sometimes become fixated on an end goal. We can strive to achieve a certain weight, a certain look, a particular lifestyle, a particular job title or salary, but we can forget to look at the day to day systems that we need in place in order to get there. Fixating on setting goals can arguably only provide a short term feeling of motivation and achievement. If this is indeed the case, then could the key to long term success and fulfilment be down to the healthy habits we put in place in order to get us to these goals and aspirations? Now this is arguably a harder, more complex process of thought to undertake.
With this in mind, let’s have a look at why healthy habits can potentially be hard to master and what we can do to give ourselves the best possible chance of success:
Why Healthy Habits Can be Hard to Master
We rely too much on willpower and motivation - Unfortunately it can only take us so far for so long. We can’t expect ourselves to be constantly motivated day in and day out, it would be too exhausting!
We Try too Much too Quickly - Often we can bite off more than we can chew which can leave us feeling overwhelmed by the habit we are trying to implement. A habit should feel manageable and sustainable for a prolonged period of time.
We are used to instant gratification - We can watch any movie whenever we want, we can order food whenever we want it, we can order items online at the click of a button. Sometimes we expect to become fitter and healthier in the same way, leaving us feeling demotivated when it doesn’t happen as quickly as we would like.
We are goal driven - We can very often be more driven by an end goal as opposed to the systems and habits we have in place in order to achieve the goal. What happens once we have achieved the goal? Do we forget about our healthy habits? Do we go back to what we were doing before? How long will it last?
4 Steps to Creating a Healthy Habit
Start small - Bigger behavioural changes often require large amounts of motivation which can’t always be sustained. Starting small and making the habit manageable will more likely lead onto a solid and longstanding change.
Do it everyday - According to a research paper published by the European Journal of Social Psychology, it takes on average 66 days for a new habit to be automatic. Research has also suggested that if these small and manageable changes are carried out every single day then the habit can be ingrained much faster.
Make it easy - We are far more likely to carry out a new habit when we clear any obstacles in our way, we need to set ourselves up for success! Get your gym clothes ready the night before, plan healthy meals in advance, have that journal available by your bedside.
Reward yourself - Rewards can be a really important part of forming new habits, we need to congratulate ourselves for the time and effort we are putting in. Make the habit you are integrating enjoyable, it doesn’t have to feel like a chore or a burden to your day.
The healthy habits that we put in place for ourselves should promote longevity and encourage a mindset that will enable us to carry out these habits in years and decades to come. Focus on the day to day systems that make us who we are and shape the type of life we want to live and the results will follow. As James Clear, bestselling author of ‘Atomic Habits’, writes so eloquently:
‘Spend less time focusing on outcomes and more time focusing on the habits that precede the results’
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Emily Grace
After working for many years in the corporate world, Emily trained as a holistic health and wellbeing coach, continuing with further education in the field of mindfulness based stressed reduction.
Emily understands from first hand experience how quickly our health can become unbalanced with modern day pressures and demands. She combines her own personal experience, along with her training, to help clients regain balance in both mind and body for optimal health and happiness. She works with both individuals and businesses looking to improve the health of their employees.