by KDMiller | Habit formation
Changing or replacing a bad habit is hard, time-consuming work that might not pan out. Right? You’ve tried to do it before so you already know that by the third or fourth week, or maybe two months from now, you’ll be back to square one.
But will you, really? The process of changing a habit certainly creates new neural pathways in our brains. Each time we successfully move toward the new habit and away from the old one, those paths get stronger.
The problem is that it doesn’t happen as fast as we’d like. We become impatient because we want the change to happen now. We forget that in all likelihood the bad habit (though easier to pick up perhaps) still took time to take root.
A habit is something we basically do without effort or much thought. It’s like driving your car, riding a bike, getting dressed or any other behavior that we repeatedly do. It takes time for the habit to become second nature, and for some habits, it takes upwards of five years (Pro-Change, 2018).
Patient, steady persistence will get you where you want to go with your new habit. Will it be easy? Nope. But nothing worth having or changing is typically easy to have or do.
You will stumble. You will get tired. And then you’ll pick yourself back up, remember why you want to change that bad habit, and in the immortal words of Walt Disney, “keep moving forward.”
References:
Pro-Change (2018). The Transtheoretical Model. Retrieved from https://www.prochange.com/transtheoretical-model-of-behavior-change November 30, 2018.
by KDMiller | Habit formation
A quick Google search for “how long does it take to establish a new habit” will get you a variety of answers. So who’s right? That was my frustration when I began studying habit formation several years ago.
As I learned more about the topic I started using myself as a guinea pig. You, too? Well, after one of my so-called established habits fell apart, I set out to learn why.
Not every habit we want to take on is the same. And it’s easier to replace a bad habit with a healthful one than to try to break the bad one. Knowing this I sought the counsel of a few experts on motivation from Ball State (that’s where I’m earning my master’s degree,) Stanford and the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Most of us know that we need to reward ourselves, but did you know that the reward can be something as simple as “I did it!” said aloud in front of no one? Think about it. When you do something well, and another person acknowledges you for it, how do you feel? What if you became that other person for yourself?
Praising the process is more important than praising the product (Research supports this, but if you want a quick, concise read, check out Growth Mindset by Carol Dweck.) So, every effort you make with your habit deserves a bit of mental high-fiving.”
We don’t need to bribe ourselves with rewards, especially if what we’re really trying to do is build intrinsic motivation for a task (more on this another time.)
But extrinsic carrots can help us along our journey to healthful, more productive habits. For my exercise habit, I use a checkmark on a calendar that I see every day.
No checkmark = no reward (mental high-five) = no sense of accomplishment for that task.
How long does it really take to establish a new habit? It depends, but you might be interested in learning more about the Transtheoretical Model of Change (aka Change Theory; Stages of Change) as a jumping off point.
The oft-quoted 21 or 30-days isn’t necessarily accurate for every healthy habit you’d like to implement. (The bad habits seem to be sticky much more easily, am I right?) In fact, sometimes it can take up to five years!
Bottom line? Be patient with yourself as you try to create healthful, productive habits. Have a little fun with the process, and don’t get too caught up in the product. You’ll get there. Healthy habit formation is a journey.
References:
LaMorte, W. W. (2018). The Transtheoretical Model (Stages of change). Retrieved from http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/BehavioralChangeTheories6.html
Dweck, C. (2007) Growth Mindset: The new psychology of success. New York: Ballantine Books.
by KDMiller | Personal Development
You’ve been following your new diet for a month or so, but you’re not seeing the results you expected. You’ve been following your “dream” project for six months with little success. Should you quit?
The answer is, “it depends.”
When the goal or objective is personal, not professional, then you might want to consider whether you’re still “all in.” If you can be honest with yourself and the answer is “no,” then it’s time to let it go (I feel like I’m channeling Elsa, right now.)
Is that an easy thing to do? Nope.
Why? Because chances are we’re mentally and physically invested. We’ve spent so much time on it. Other people expect us to do it. Oi! You can’t possibly quit, now!
Our hesitance or resistance sometimes comes down to one simple word — Fear. Before I give you my definition of fear, though, let’s talk about why “to persist or not” isn’t necessarily the question we should be asking.
What if what you need to do is adjust?
Maybe you “reshape” what you’re doing and keep going after “it.” Here’s a great question to ask yourself, “Is it still serving a purpose for you?” Or, how about this, “Is your energy better spent elsewhere?” What about this, “Do you need to table it for the moment?” Or even this, “Does your idea need to marinate a little longer?” (Some people might prefer “percolate.” Yeah, that works, too.)
The point is that figuring out whether you persist in order to achieve a goal isn’t a simple answer. It takes a bit of contemplation time. And that’s time worth spending when something matters to you.
Back to how I define fear — It really means “fabulous effort absolutely required.” And anything worth our time to persist doing is going to probably scare us just a little bit.
by KDMiller | Habit formation, Personal Development
It’s New Year’s Eve and for some reason you’ve decided to make a few (don’t lie, several) resolutions. You’re going to lose the muffin top, stop drinking so much, kick the nic habit, spend more time doing/being/etc. … but then you don’t stick with any of them for longer than a month or so.
What happened?
Was it a lack of motivation? You thought you had that on lock.
Was it a lack of willpower? Yeah, maybe, but how do you get more of that? You read somewhere it’s like a “muscle,” but what does that really mean?
If you’re like me, all you want to know is how to develop a habit in any area of your life and make it “sticky.”
You’ve probably read or heard about The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg (Great read, by the way, if you haven’t indulged.) Maybe you’ve even looked into other habit books (there are a few.) And as much as you love them (me. too) something isn’t clicking.
For me, the realization happened when I’d established (I thought) an exercise habit for nearly a year, but when I became ill it became harder and harder to start my routine again. This nagged at me until I finally called BJ Fogg (the Tiny Habit guru.)
From our conversation, I realized that one thing I failed to do was PLAN for being ill, or PLAN for being unable to meet my goal. This might seem basic to you, but it was a revelation for me.
If you want to have indestructible habits one thing you need to do is plan for the times you can’t achieve the goal. Why? Because it can take much longer than you realize to establish a habit.
Remember, a habit, in its most basic form, is something you do without thinking. Some take root so easily your head spins. Others, not so much.
Step one: Make a plan.
by KDMiller | Personal Development
How many times have you failed? Sometimes we have a skewed view of this either because we’re listening to others (and allowing them into our heads,) or we have high standards for ourselves (that might be a bit unrealistic.)
But is all failure bad?
What can we learn from the experience?
The number one thing is resilience. But what is that? The American Psychological Association defines it as, “the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant sources of stress — such as family and relationship problems, serious health problems or workplace and financial stressors. It means “bouncing back” from difficult experiences” (APA, 2018).
It’s not the same as persistence.
But what if we’re not all that great at “bouncing back?” What if you really suck at it? Here’s the upside …
Resilience, aka grit, has been studied for at least twenty years and there are several actions we can take to make ourselves stronger.
Here are a few of the high points:
- Build healthy relationships
- Accept that change is gonna happen
- Keep an eye on your prize (goals)
- Take care of you, boo.
- Be decisive and ACT.
Check out the reference section for a link to a more detailed list from the APA. Seriously, they know their stuff. And if you’re interested in how to apply it to children/teens, also check out the information from Harvard.
Bottom line? We all can become more resilient, gritty people with a little deliberate practice.
References:
American Psychological Association (2018). The road to resilience. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/helpcenter/road-resilience.aspx
Center on the Developing Child (2018). Supportive relationships and active skill-building strengthen the foundations of resilience. Retrieved from https://developingchild.harvard.edu/resources/supportive-relationships-and-active-skill-building-strengthen-the-foundations-of-resilience/
