Forming New Habits… Tools to help make it happen!

Let’s talk about forming new habits! This is something I’ve been working on this month and I wanted to share Some of my ideas. I’m also sharing some printables and tools to help with this. Yay!

We all have times in our lives where we intentionally want to change our behavior for the better and create new habits for ourselves. This could be getting in the habit of eating healthier and drinking more water. It could be work related, spiritual, or sticking to a new routine. (one of my new habits)  There are so many areas in our lives that could be improved and made easier by forming new habits.

Getting into the habit of doing something is often easier said than done. We seem to acquire bad habits without any effort, but getting into a “good” habit can be a little more challenging. We perform several habits a day. Some positive behaviors and other can hinder our growth.And then there’s those habits that we need to form to improve our lives. That’s what this post is about!

Forming new habits needs to start somewhere though. Let’s break it down into a three step process that makes it easy to follow until we’ve internalized the new behavior and made it a true habit. A true habit is something we do automatically without having to think about, like brushing our teeth or having a morning cup of coffee.

First we make our HABITS, then our HABITS make us!

Now, let’s begin our action plan for developing some new good habits!

1. Decide what habit you want to form;

The first step is to decide what you want that new habit to be. Be as specific as possible. Don’t just tell yourself you want to exercise more. Instead say something like “I will go for a 30 minute walk every single day”. Deciding what your new habit will be and committing to when and how you’re going to do it, is half the battle.

2. Remind yourself to work on forming the habit:

The next few days should be smooth sailing. You’re motivated and excited to get this done. Right? Sticking to your new habit isn’t an issue. But a few days in you’ll notice that it’s easy to slip back into old habits. Maybe it’s raining and you don’t really want to go out and walk. Or maybe your day just gets away from you. This is when it’s important to have a daily reminder. Set an alert on your phone or add the new habit to your daily to-do list for a while. Then do it!

3. Make it part of your routine until it becomes a habit:

Which brings us to the last step. It takes some time before a new behavior becomes a true habit. Until then, a routine will work to your best advantage. Even before the new behavior becomes automatic, a routine will help you get it done without having to spend a lot of willpower or relying on daily reminders. Make that daily walk part of your after dinner routine, or change from grabbing a snack at the vending machine at work at 10:00 in the morning to packing a healthy snack.

We are what we repeatedly do.

Decide to create the new habit, practice the routine until it’s second nature and you’ll be well on your way to forming a new good habit.

Here are some tools to help you on your way! 🙂

Forming New Habits Tracking Chart:

DOWNLOAD HABIT TRACKING CHART HERE: PDF or JPG

Motivational quote:

DOWNLOAD QUOTE PRINT HERE: PDF or JPG

I’m not sold on the 21 days to make a habit so the chart I created has 12 weeks to track. Some of my habits I will track for a month and others for more. You can track whats vest for you. Another suggestion I have is to space out your new habits. Focus on two or three to start and as they become habits add a couple of more.

Good Luck. Now let’s go make it happen! 🙂

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