This is When You Should Start a New Habit

Summer has officially come to an end!

The stores are naturally filling up with Halloween decorations which will soon be replaced by Christmas decorations. Before we know it, it will be 2023 — and that’s how life flashes through our eyes.

But let’s step back a little.

With only nine more days left in September and the new month approaching us so fast, we tend to set goals and focus on how we can improve ourselves. We try to create a habit and do our best to be consistent with it.

But when you expose yourself to a situation that does not cater to your goals, you might break that discipline you convinced yourself so hard to attain.

You waited so long for the beginning of the month to happen, only to divulge into the lifestyle you declared you would completely get rid of.

Interesting, isn’t it?

Then you look at yourself and say, “It’s already Tuesday. I guess I have to wait until next Monday to start over…”

I’ll tell you this.

There will never be a right time to start a good habit and let go of a bad one. You either got to rip off the bandaid or leave it.

Consistency and discipline are the keys to success when starting anything.

It would be best if you stopped believing it’s okay to overwhelm yourself with good habits so you can be the person you envisioned yourself to be.

Learning new habits is much like learning absolutely anything.

There’s a process to building good habits; unfortunately, it does not happen overnight. But as cliche as this may sound, if it were easy, anyone could do it.

If you want to learn how to create good habits, we need to clear our minds filled with doubt and believe you can do it!

That’s the only way that you’ll be able to move forward.

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1. Setting Goals with Intention

Photo by Alexa Williams on Unsplash

The intention is the thing you need to focus on when you are creating what your goals are. This helps us identify what we require from ourselves to be the human we want to become.

We must be curious and open about why we must achieve those goals when creating habits. When trying to learn more about yourself and why you want to have these goals, try finding your inner 5-year-old self and keep asking yourself WHY?

An example of this may be that a goal of yours is to want to read 30 books.

Now let’s look at that goal to identify the intention of why you would want to commit to that particular goal.

Why is reading 30 books vital to you?

Why will this goal benefit you?

Why do you think that reading 30 books this year will fulfil you?

Why do you want to start this goal now?

Is this goal achievable, or are you being unrealistic?

This is an important question to ask because if you are a busy person who maybe works 40–60 hours a week and also a caretaker who hasn’t touched a book for leisure in a long time, it might be difficult to complete 30 books in a span of 3 months.

When do you plan to finish reading 30 books?

2. Group and Prioritize Goals

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After creating a list of goals you want to achieve and understanding the intent behind each habit, it is time to organize!

One thing is for sure, we can’t start each goal simultaneously. We will most likely scare ourselves from trying the goals again if we’re attempting all our goals simultaneously.

Imagine trying to start eight books today so you can be finished reading 30 books by the end of the month! Some people may be able to do that, but it definitely won’t be me. I need to take my time to enjoy a book and fully understand the content.

Grouping together your goals might be the easiest way to learn how you can create a consistent plan when starting your habits. I like to group my goals by how vital each group is to prioritize.

Below are a couple of my personal goals that I’ve grouped and organized based on priority.

Group 1: Fitness

Goals consist of:

Drinking 4 litres of water every day
Clean eating
Working out 6x day

Group 2: Writing

Goals consist of:

Writing daily
Learn to establish my freelance business

Group 3: Personal

Goals consist of:

Reading 30 books this year
Learning a new language

I grouped these goals based on how I can relate to each one to each other. If we look at the fitness goals, each purpose relates to the overall pursuit of the goals I want to prioritize for fitness.

Drinking water is a priority for fitness and health, as staying hydrated helps prevent me from experiencing any body cramps and reaching for sugary, hidden-calorie drinks.

Drinking 4 litres of water will also help keep me full, which may aid in me eating clean and ultimately help me reach my fitness goals.

3. Create a Timeline

Photo by Christina Isabella on Unsplash

Timelines are tough to stick to. But if you look at any company with big projects — they have timelines for when they need to get things done. They have already created a process and identified the goals that need to be targeted, but now they need a realistic timeline for executing and finalizing the project’s loose ends.

This helps keep you on track without overwhelming yourself. You may not get to working 6x a week daily your first week or be able to drink 4L of water right off the bat but being able to remain consistent until your estimated end goal is what will help reinforce your timeline.

And yes, timelines will always change! There will always be a time when you might not be able to act on one of your goals due to unforeseen circumstances, so you shall not punish yourself.

Why?

Because it’s completely okay because life is unpredictable, and it just HAPPENS. But as long as you are disciplined (because motivation won’t really help you) to meet your deadline for your goal timeline, it is not the end of the world.

4. Practice and Reflect

Photo by Clark Young on Unsplash

Practice your goals until they meet your level of perfection. Remain consistent and keep powering through to the goals and dreams you believe are essential to you, as you identified in the first step.

Continue to practice until it becomes second nature. Once you’re finished practising new habits, reflect on the things you did and how you can make these habits easier to perform.

If you haven’t noticed, people prefer convenience. If you make reaching for a book a lot easier than reaching for your TV remote, you will most likely replace your TV remote across the room and keep a book in the spot you usually keep the remote.

Even if you want to read more and limit your social media usage, you can download a book on your device and read an excerpt or page from a book instead of scrolling through TikTok mindlessly for hours.

And hey, if you didn’t hit your goal yet, or you’re reaching the end, and you’re not close to where you are, look at how far you came by trying to attempt a new habit.

You might not be working out 6x a week, but you managed to stay consistent with working out 3x a week instead, which is a massive improvement from the sedentary movement you were used to.

Remember, forming goals and new habits takes a lot of willpower, and when you reflect on how far you’ve come, you will realize just how much closer you are to your end goal than you thought.

Give yourself credit where it’s due because changing for the better was never an easy journey. However, if you are serious about changing your habits and hitting your goals, it all starts with how disciplined you are when getting what you always envisioned you would have.

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Building a habit is not only a challenging process. But putting your best foot forward and showing up for yourself every SINGLE day, even on the days you don’t want to, is the step you need to be disciplined to take.

Your mind is the only thing that holds you back from success.

Once you persevere through that, the rest will come naturally.

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Thank you for reading!

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This post was previously published on medium.com.

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