In the last couple of months, I tried building a new habit every single month. I tried meditating on a daily basis, reading a book every month, going to bed every day at 10 pm, and journaling every morning. Even though some I ended up implementing, while others I gave up, this experience has taught me a lot about the dos and don’ts of building habits.

Before, it absolutely didn’t make sense to me that I didn’t have any difficulties with turning vegan overnight when something much smaller such as taking my vitamins on a daily basis seemed so darn difficult.

So what I did was analyzing all the action steps I took for implementing these habits and honestly had lots of fun in the process.

In this blog post, I will share everything that I learned from this building habits experiment.

Related Reads:

• Building Daily Habits that Stick: 13 Simple Steps
• Building A Night Routine That Sets You Up For Success
• The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Creative Solopreneurs
• My 5:30 AM Morning Routine As An Entrepreneur

#1. Having a strong why

If you have a strong why, especially when it’s associated with your health, you will be much more likely to keep up with it. Because quitting this habit would be irrational, right? It would mean that you’re neglecting your health.

However, what I learned (and I am definitely #guilty to this one too) is that I feel like lots of people go the wrong way about it. They first decide which habits they will implement and AFTER, think about the why behind it…

Ideally, it should be the other way around. We should first figure out what kind of lifestyle that we genuinely want for ourselves, that we truly desire and then, think about which habits we could implement to create this kind of lifestyle.

#2. Avoid building habits out of punishment

I used to have (and I still do sometimes) this yo-yo effect in my life. And what I mean by that is: feeling extremely guilty and bad about myself for not having worked out the whole week. So that’s why to punish me and compensate, I start to work out like crazy every single day the next week. And after, I’m so done with working out that I stop for a few days, and then the cycle starts over again.

So I noticed that this. just. doesn’t. work. This is absolutely not sustainable and a good mindset to have.

Sometimes life just happens and you won’t be able to do your habit, but then, just take a deep breath and don’t punish yourself! Just accept that this is completely normal and try again the next day (without overcompensating!).

So what I tried to do is to completely shift my approach and to build habits more from a place of inspiration. I no longer tried to work out just because I feel I have to lose weight and don’t feel comfortable in my body, but rather genuinely feeling inspired to work out because I want to feel strong and energized.

And I feel like this has helped me tremendously with becoming more balanced and consistent with my workouts and habits in general.

#3. Disrupt your day-to-day life

I don’t know about you, but when you move into a new home, often just your whole life changes, right? You have a completely new environment, new people, new habits, new everything. I find that having this ‘clean slate’ really helps when it comes to building habits.

Why? Because you’re in the process of finding a new routine, and whatever you start doing, tends to sick a hell of a lot easier than having to change habits afterward.

However, don’t worry, you definitely don’t need to change homes for building habits. It can be as simple as moving some furniture around, or changing things up a bit, to have this ‘clean slaty feeling’. So that when you enter the room, it’s different and that reminds you to do this new habit.

For example, my boyfriend used to leave his wallet and keys wherever around the house and was always searching for them when going out. So, I bought this cute box where he could put his stuff and displayed it on the top of a small closet. However, even though there was a designated space for him now to keep his keys and wallet, he obviously didn’t use it. So, what I noticed was that when I moved some furniture around and placed the same small closet in a different corner of the room with the cute box on top of it, he magically started using it.

Because the room looked different now, and that disrupted his normal day-to-day life in a sense, and that can be very powerful for building habits.

#4. Rather then looking for some kind of result, just try to genuinely enjoy the process

if you start truly enjoying the practice of journaling for example, this will motivate you more than results will ever do.

So try to make your habits as fun as possible.

Make it your quality time and create a whole ritual behind it, so that you start looking forward to it!

For example, if you journal with a soft blanket, your fav coffee, relaxing music and some candles lit, then it just becomes such a vibe, that it becomes your favorite moment of the day.

So don’t take it too serious, just have fun with it, and it will become a habit automatically.

#5. Don’t put the bar too high

The biggest mistake that I was making when it comes to building habits, is expecting way too much from myself…

I was putting the bar so high that I just couldn’t keep up with it.

45 min workouts 6 times a week is probably too big of a goal when you are just starting out.

I realized (the hard way) that it’s much better to consistently work out 20 min for 3 times a week than working out one week for 6 consecutive days and giving up after.

Hope this was helpful!

Related Reads:

• Building Daily Habits that Stick: 13 Simple Steps
• Building A Night Routine That Sets You Up For Success
• The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Creative Solopreneurs
• My 5:30 AM Morning Routine As An Entrepreneur

Let’s Chat!

Are you trying to implement new habits into your life? Let me know in the comments down below!