Let’s say you got into the habit of taking a 20 minute walk every day after dinner. You are doing it for about 5 weeks. Feels like a pretty good habit, right? It’s easy to do. You sleep better. And you’re starting to look a little trimmer.
Then, you go to a meeting out of town, or on vacation or you get sick. You don’t walk for a couple of days. Then, it turns into a week. Then it has been months and the good habit, we must admit, is gone.
Now, take a bad habit. You have a cookie at 3pm every day with a cup of coffee to keep you going. You decide you are going to stop. It is excruciating, just excruciating to give up that cookie. You give it up for 3 days. Thursday, you come in very tired. Bad nights’ sleep and you are dragging (all because you’re no longer taking that walk). SO, you have a cookie just this one day. Boom! You are right back into the bad habit.
Why is it so much easier to keep up the bad habits than the good ones?
Obviously, the bad habits are infinitely more delicious. And, sometimes they go with diversion and excitement, or just plain being “bad”.
The trick may be to make the good habits more fun — make them part of a game. If I walk for 2 weeks, on Friday, I’ll walk to that new gastropub a mile away from the house, and get a brewski after dinner. Or, make a commitment with a friend (accountability partner) to work out together and every 5th time, we will go out to dinner afterwards. Or, maybe just having time with the friend is its own reward.
Don’t do this alone. And, don’t waste this on something you will do anyway. Use it on one of the top 3 habits you want to acquire that keep showing up on the list and never get accomplished. Line it up before you start your Monday routine, and email your new partner. Make it a great new habit.
Picture courtesy of chefmom.sheknows.com