New Year is approaching and you may have made some resolutions like going to the gym regularly, ditching fatty food, and staying on a budget. But it is extremely hard to break from old habits and stick to the new ones. We start off with our new habits with best intentions but we dwindle in between because of the defaulted well-worn patterns which have been developed for over years.

It happens because there is a lack of proper strategy for adopting new habits and sticking to them. Changing old habits and stay with the new ones requires following ways.

1- Have a plan:

Just changing your habits instantly and saying that you will pursue with it onwards is not the right way. It is human nature that stressful times push you towards your old habits. Therefore, unless you have a plan to control yourself, you will not be able to break the old habits. According to experts, you need to prepare yourself for such situations. When you know what behavior to reinforce instead of simply having the knowledge habits you are trying to get rid of, you will have a better outcome.

2- Be consistent:

Being good at something needs practice. The more you will practice a new habit, the more you will be good at it. You need to develop a pattern on more than an infrequent basis. People who perform new habits as ritual see dramatic results. They grow faster and change their behavior quicker than the people who are trying to do the same.

3- Practice patience:

Including patience in your development of new habits is extremely important. You will see positive results by reinforcing patience in times of stress. It is very common for people to revert back to their old ways. This keeps on happening until they reach a point where new habits seem like natural. It does take few weeks or a month before you break from the old habits and fully adopt the new behavior but patience needs to be practiced in life as well as in business.

Via: Forbes