Creating Habits

Lifestyle is created not by the actions of one day, but by many
little steps over months and years. I’ve gradually worked on eating
healthier, exercising, socializing, saving money, and experimenting
endlessly to create my current lifestyle.
How to Create Powerful Habits for Life by Leo Babauta
(Zen Habits) made me realize I have been developing habits to
mould and sustain my current lifestyle. Here’s my summary:

Achieving Goals with Habits

• Success starts with doing the small steps that lead to goals
• Habits are a way of doing those small steps
• Oftentimes people jump headfirst toward goals but don’t establish
  habits needed to sustain them
• Can’t achieve goals that take months or years without first
  instilling small habits
• Creating a habit is more important than doing something big today;
  a tiny habit will accumulate in weeks & months to more than what
  can be done today
• Focus on creating a habit instead of seeing immediate results

Simple Method for Creating Powerful Habits

• Don’t do the habit the first week. Plan it out:
  • What were past obstacles?
  • Who will be the support system?
  • Talk to my support system about the new habit
• The more consistent the habit, the stronger it is. Take a daily
  trigger (waking up, eating, brushing teeth) & do habit immediately
  after trigger every day for 4–6 weeks
• Positive feedback. Every time I go running, reward myself. Make
  the habit enjoyable (e.g., with music), focus on positive aspects,
  get positive encouragement from others: as soon as I do the habit,
  report the habit (blog, twitter, email, forum, “gone 24 hours without
  smoking”). Focus on creating the habit rather than on instant
  results.
• Report my progress to a social group. There will be times when I
  fall off the habit; have people to call before that happens
• Adjust habit as needed. Is the habit too difficult? Unforeseen
  obstacles?

Overcoming Habit Failure

• One habit at a time; doing too much leads to failure
• Make habit extremely small (5–10 minutes) and expand later
• When interruptions happen, either:
  • prioritize habit, or
  • accept interruption and resume afterward

Viewers’ Questions

• Identify negative habits’ triggers and replace the habit with a
  positive one (e.g., typing notes after meeting instead of smoking)
• Negative self-talk:
  1. listen to it (as if it were someone trying to quit smoking
     and saying “I need it”, for example)
  2. look at it like a bug
  3. and mentally squash it (“look at how many people have quit
     smoking”, “look at how many people have ran marathons”)
• Overcoming laziness: positive feedback is easiness; negative
  feedback is hard work. Reverse it: negative feedback from social
  motivators (gotta tell everyone I’m lazy), positive feedback is
  feeling great doing it and bragging rights
• Restarting habits: make it as easy as possible (just get on the
  bike for ten minutes; just lace up and run), even if it seems
  ridiculously easy compared to past
• Nondestructive rewards: frozen grapes, berries, running, buying books
• Become conscious of urges: tally up each time an urge comes up
  before doing it. See how often it happens and what the triggers are
• Blogging creates accountability and positive reinforcement
• Avoid feeling guilty. Habits are a skill: mess up and try again
• Having a routine makes habits easier. Even if every day is
  different, tie habit to something daily (waking up, breakfast,
  brushing teeth)
• Average habits take 68 days, but easier habits take 12 days. The
  easier the habit the easier it is to form
• Has the habit formed yet? Does it feel automatic now? Does it
  feel like an urge to do after the trigger? Look at my record: have
  I consistently been doing it, or spotty? If the answer is yes to
  the above, then a new habit can be formed