4 ways to make good habits stick

With plenty of distractions just waiting to throw our day off-schedule, it is impossible to develop and sustain a single routine. However, those who've made it beyond the struggle in life will tell you that success cannot be achieved overnight. It requires immense discipline to build good habits and make them stick. As Aristotle once said, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.” If you want to make your life easier and less chaotic, try these four simple ways to make your good habits a daily routine.

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Evaluate your failure in making good habits stick

Address the root cause of your issue through a process called self-probing. For example, if you just cannot push yourself to wake up at six in the morning every day to go to the gym, don't keep trying in vain for months and then accept defeat. Instead, understand the reason behind your failure to wake up early and hit the gym by addressing the root of the issue. Once you understand the real cause behind your failure to do a certain thing, you'll be able to resolve the issue immediately.

Take it easy

If you want to make a good habit stick for a long time, start small and go easy. Don't try to accomplish everything in one day. When you overwhelm yourself with too much too soon, you are setting yourself up for failure. Since the habit is not a part of your daily routine, you'll have to put in more effort than usual to make it work in your favour. Take time to train yourself by treating the new habit as a ritual and your mindset will integrate it seamlessly over time.

Interlink your habits wherever possible

When you develop habits that are interlinked, your mind sees them as one long routine. For example, sleeping early and rising early are obviously connected to one another. However, making lunch for yourself is a stand-alone habit. When you link habits wherever you can, you make it easy for yourself to see them through and you give yourself the chance to put in more effort in the stand-alone habits. Over a period of time, all these habits will reinforce each another and stick with you for a long time.

Take the help of those around you

Ask your friends if they would like to develop a habit similar to yours so all of you can encourage each other to pursue the habit actively. For example, when you have to go for a run at five in the morning every day, it is easier to get up knowing your friends are waiting for you in the park than motivating yourself to get out of bed and going for a run alone. However, if that is not possible, those around you can morally support you to see your habit reach fruition.

When your habits have been finally integrated into your life and everything runs on auto-pilot, you'll feel a sense of major achievement. Try the above tricks and see if they work for you.