August 2023 Newsletter | How to Establish New Habits

August 1, 2023

Our habits are what we spend most of our time doing. Habits appear to run on autopilot, they are the things that feel most natural to us. In reality, our habits feel natural because we have spent so much time practicing them and the ones that feel innate are likely the easiest or most enjoyable to accomplish. 

Think of something you do every day, something that doesn’t seem to take much effort. Maybe it’s a form of entertainment: reading a book, listening to music, or watching a show after school or work to unwind. Or maybe it’s your breakfast: a cup of coffee and a banana on your train ride each morning. These are examples of habits that form because they satisfy a need in your life—the need for pleasure, the need to satiate hunger with something you enjoy the taste of or that makes you feel alert.

At times we may find that we want to make a change in our lives. Maybe we want to acquire a new skill or we find that we need to make adjustments for health reasons. Such changes require modifying our habits. In this sense, they are not one-off decisions but instead require making the same decision, over and over again, until the habit is established. And let’s face it: that can be tough, especially after the initial burst of excitement has subsided, when the new activity can start to feel mundane but has not yet rooted itself into your life. 

So how can we get over that post-excitement hump and help our habits take hold? 

Define your goal 

What change do you want to make? Unless you know exactly what new habit you want to establish, you’ll quickly find it difficult to accomplish anything. 

Start small

Because new habits can take time to become established, begin with something that is well-suited for your life. If you decide you want to start exercising and you haven’t really been doing any physical activity before, start with a daily walk around the block and build up. If a new habit requires a complete overhaul of your life, it’s probably going to be too difficult to establish.

Set yourself up for success

Say you want to have better spending habits and decide you’ll start bringing a lunch to work instead of buying take out. That habit doesn’t start while you’re packing your lunch in the morning, it starts at the grocery store days before when you buy things you enjoy eating that will be easy to take with you each day. By laying the groundwork and preparing when you have some extra time (perhaps during the weekend), you can make it easier to make the best decision for yourself when it may be harder to do so (like when you’re rushing around in the morning).

Practice

Getting actions to a point where they feel automatic can actually take a lot of effort to start. At first, you’ll have to practice your new habit so that it becomes something that your mind or body starts to recognize as essential. You may even start to dislike the new habit you are trying to establish after some time because of the effort. If that happens, take some time to think about whether you really want to stick it out, if the habit is something you value. If you do, remember that you are in the practicing phase and that ‘practice makes proficient.’ With enough practice you may find that those negative feelings disappear.

When we want to establish a new habit, it usually involves doing something that’s traditionally been difficult for us (otherwise, we’d already be doing it). It’s important to remember that new habits take time to develop and that feeling challenged by them is completely normal.