When thinking about starting a new habit, people often fall into the trap of perfectionism. They think that there must only be one right way of doing something and that if they can't find it (or find an easy shortcut) then it's not worth doing.
But the truth is that almost no change to a personal habit (bad or good) happens gracefully, or without effort, or without some kind of mess. The first time an infant gets up to walk, or a young child starts to run it is inevitably going to lead to some falls, some scrapes and bruises. When a kid or young adult learns to ride a bike, there's probably going to be a crash involved at some point after they can do it. It's no different when learning new creative, fitness, communication or business skills. There's always going to be mistakes made and set-backs to deal with. Personal development is not about how well you can get to the end goal, but how quickly and enjoyably you can pick yourself up after you fall down.
That also doesn't mean making a change has to be difficult, or involve major suffering. The old cliché of "no pain no, no gain" is really due for an update. The reality is that our brains and survival instincts are wired to maintain patterns at all cost, even when these patterns are not serving our ultimate goals and purpose.
And because of that the best way to make changes is not to try and beat back that part of our biology through hard work and forceful use of will power. That approach works for very few people long-term. However, we can easily outsmart our brains and instincts by applying gentle effort consistently, to make new habits form easily.
The formula is very simple:
1) Start where you are
2) Do what you can, with a minimum of effort
3) Tomorrow do the same plus a little more
4) Repeat until you have the change you want and then continue while adding small, incremental improvements. In other words - Plan, Do, Review, Improve. That's it.
If you want to get in shape but haven't exercised in months or years - Start with 2-3 minutes a day and add a few seconds to your routine the next day. If you can only do 10 sit-ups before you get out of breath, start there, but don't push yourself at the beginning.
If you want to learn to draw, or trade cryptocurrencies, it's the same thing. Start with just a few minutes a day and then move on.
If you try to put a lot of effort into something new right away, unless you're already good at focusing and calming your mind, your brain may try to thwart you.
In essence make it easy for yourself to succeed right away, by doing a few minutes of effort, then adding it to it consistently. Consistency is the key to all habits. Once the brain accepts that something is a pattern it's familiar with, then you won't have to fight it to add on to what's already there.
One last thing - the best time to start is at the exact moment when you think of the change you want to make. Now this is obviously much easier said than done when you're busy with work, family, school and other obligations. But my final tip is this - you don't have to literally start that activity using your physical body! One of the truths of hypnosis is that the mind doesn't distinguish between physical reality and the imagination. So you simply find a quiet place as soon as you have the opportunity and you imagine, yes visualize yourself starting the new habit or process you want to do and imagine yourself doing it well and enjoying it. This will make it even easier that first time you begin to do it for real.
Try these tactics out and see how quickly and easily you'll be developing new skills and making progress in your goals.
Best,
@hypnopreneur
Congratulations, your post has been featured in issue #3 of The Make It Healthy Project MAGAZINE!
That is very cool. Im glad you appreciate and find it to be complementary to your project. Cheers and besy wishes. :)
Great tips. I like the one about visualizing the new habit in your mind. I’ll definitely be putting this into practice. Thank you for sharing your wisdom!
You got it my friend, glad you appreciate it. The visualization method is a great one, because if you make it a habit, it will actually trick your mind into believing you're already doing the new activity. And then soon you will be! Thanks for checking it out and wish you lots of success.
Thanks man, optimism ist the key
Yes indeed! Thanks for stopping by and commenting.
This is spot on! It is like rolling a snowball down a hill :) at first it doesn't seem like much and it may not roll very easily but if you keep pushing the snowball, it will build momentum. With momentum it can't be stopped!
It's already in motion and those habits that started with a little momentum have now started to shape your life for the better!
The hardest part is starting but it does get easier! :)
Love this!!
Hey thanks so much Annemarie, you totally get it! :)
It's all about a quick start and building that positive momentum right away. People are so hooked on instant gratification images and approaches to health / fitness they bypass the easier ways of doing things. Let's get em out of that head-space and moving in a balanced way!
I really appreciate your comments; it's always great to connect to other people that think this way. And just a quick look at your own post tells me you're doing amazing things in your health and fitness, as well as having a talent for sharing your knowledge in an enjoyable way.
Cheers and looking forward to discussing more health tips and with you on Steemit. :)
The start of a new habit is through small and consistent wins. The problem starts when the new habit is clashing with an old one.
Thankbyou for this simple and useful technique
Your welcome my friend Coming up against resistance can be tricky. When coaching people I often recommend at least three new habits (using the formula I gave here) because even if they don't succeed in all three or even in two, they still have that one habit which they keep building up.
Cheers and thanks for your support.
very helpful tips..many thanks
Thanks for your comments and glad you enjoyed.
This is a great approach! We get caught in the extremes of everything is forget the slow and steady approach. I believe when we take the extreme route, we set ourselves up for failure because the expectations are right but the time and effort required is way off.
That's exactly it! :) In the extreme approach there's a big disconnect between our understanding of the time and effort required for a high-level result. Slow and steady is easier to get into and build up progress, without running into the disappointment / expectation hang over that happens when the results don't happen right away.
You got a 50.00% upvote from @bearwards courtesy of @hypnopreneur!
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Wow greate article!
Thanks for using the @postdoctor service!
You got a 16.67% upvote from @adriatik courtesy of @hypnopreneur!
Cool im going to start routinly practicing piano i feel like thats where i want to be in
Thanks btw learning new skills is always difficult at first but yeah practicing will help anyways thanks
That's great my friend. Just think of getting comfortable as you let your hands touch the keys, practicing a few movements, then a few more and hearing all the notes starting to flow into a rhythm. Then you work on chunks of songs, then a whole song, etc. Oh and imagine yourself having fun the whole time. That always helps. Good luck. :)
Thanks again!
Yeah always great to feel and to hear yourself play
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Wonderful post ..thanks for sharing...Best of luck friend ✫
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