Habits are Hard

Forming a new habit, or fixing a bad habit, takes time, dedication, and patience.

I’m going to give the example of waking up early as a new habit. It’s something that I have always had a problem with. No matter how early I go to sleep, I always want to sleep until I’m running late.

I’ve read several books and articles about forming new habits and this is what I have found:

• Attach the action to something you enjoy
  • If you need to start waking up earlier, make sure that you have something to look forward to. Whether it be an episode of your favorite TV show, or a cup of coffee, attach it.
• Put in the effort.
  • Part of deciding to create or change a habit is committing to it. You need to want to change what’s going on.
• Give yourself a chance.
  • Part of creating a new habit is failure. “Failure is learning. Blah. Blah. BLAH” It sucks. Plain and simple. However, it really is a learning experience. If you make it one.
    • If you don’t get up early one morning, the habit is still within reach, but change something. Almost like your testing a scientific hypothesis.
    • MODIFY and continue onward

Habits are hard to start, harder to break a bad one, and hardest to keep the good ones going.

Information Recommendations (I’ve read both of these incredible books and they have really given me a perspective of habit tracking and goal setting.)

The Power of Habit

4 Disciplines of Execution