Saima Ikram
We can never free ourselves from habits but there is a difference between the habits of an amateur and a professional. An amateur has amateur habits whereas a professional has professional habits. But fortunately, we can replace old habits with good ones. It is not easy to break the bad habits but it is harder to form the new ones. But for more productivity at work, good habit formation is really important.
Following are the few valuable key points for forming and maintaining new habits that if you combine with your daily routine, can simultaneously shape the underlying desire to achieve lasting a change:
Begin with something ridiculously small:
Most people think that good habits cannot be created until they make a big change. They think that a change will be effective only if they go from zero to four gym sessions every week or switch to a healthy diet overnight. But the actual change that you can make is by starting small. Instead of spending hours in the gym, start with minutes. Instead of changing the whole diet at once, start adding more vegetables to your diet. Always pay attention to establishing the habit behavior first and then increase the effort overtime.
Create a chain:
In order to stick to a habit, create a visual reminder of how much effort you have invested in your habit. For example, if you want to develop the habit of writing then start by writing one sentence each day. Every time you have completed your writing for the day, put a big red X on the calendar on that day. It is going to make a chain which you obviously don’t want to break and it will help you keep going.
Know the exact intention:
You cannot develop a habit unless you know exactly what you are intended towards. Know the vision that you have in mind and imagine how you want your habit to change your present state. By looking at the bigger picture, you will be motivated to keep making an effort.
Reward yourself:
Don’t ignore even the smallest accomplishments that you make. Celebrate your progress reward yourself for making progress no matter how small. Once you will activate the reward circuitry in your brain, it will make you experience feelings of achievement and pride.
Create an environment:
For sticking to a habit you are trying to make, you must create an environment that drives your behavior. You must create an environment that supports your desired habits. You must focus your energy and attention towards the changes that you want to make through your changes.
Take help from the people around:
The development of a good habit gets influenced by the people around you. Researchers have found out that you tend to feel the same way and adopt the same goals as the people around you. Therefore, for dramatically increase your chances of success for a habit, stay among the people who support the same cause.
Change your mindset:
You need to change your mind set in order to stick to a new habit. Do not pay attention to just the long-term goal and instead, focus on showing up and doing your habit every single day.
