How to Make Good Habits (And Ditch the Bad Ones)
Nov 04, 2022So you’re looking to add some healthy habits to your life.
Or maybe you’ve got some bad habits that you’re trying to ditch.
Lucky for you, I, Coach Kasey, have a Ph.D. in psychology, and helping people improve their mindset and change their behaviors is my jam!
And before we dive into how to develop good habits or stop bad habits, you need to know that it’s not complicated. In fact, the more simple you keep your efforts, the more likely you are to embrace them!
Start Making Healthy Habits
Let’s first talk about adding healthy habits to your life.
If you want to form a good habit, you need to decrease friction. In other words, make this habit as easy as possible to do.
Say you want to get more steps in. Some easy things you can do are to pace the gym between your sets, park as far away from your destination as possible, and take calls as you walk in circles in our house.
These small adjustments can easily add a few thousand or more steps to your daily step count!
Or maybe you want to eat healthier? Then you should try to make veggies and fruits easy to grab for snacks and meals (decrease the friction!).
You can move food around your house so you keep healthy snacks at eye level in the pantry or the fridge and move the other snacks to the top or bottom shelves to make them just a little bit more difficult to reach. You’ll most likely want to go with what’s right in front of you, so it will be easier to make the healthier choice.
The easier it is for you to do the thing you’re trying to make a healthy habit, the more likely you are to do it long term.
Break Bad Habits
Breaking bad habits is just as easy because you just have to do the exact opposite!
If you want to break a bad habit, you need to increase friction or make the behavior difficult to do.
For example, if you want to stop constantly checking your phone, you should put it in a different room when you’re working and turn off the phone app on your computer.
Keeping your phone farther away means you have to put effort into checking it, which you likely won’t want to do if you’re in the middle of work.
Or maybe you’re having a hard time stopping at just ONE serving of chips and frequently find yourself at the bottom of the bag (oops).
Make it easy to eat just one serving! Take out one serving, close the bag, and put it on the top shelf of the pantry.
By portioning out your chips, you’ll have enough to be satisfied, and the bag will be out of sight, so you won’t be tempted to reach for more.
You don’t have to go overboard with making things difficult. Just make things a bit more challenging than the healthy habit changes I mentioned above.
Develop Habits that Make You Proud
You can use this simple method for whatever habits you’re trying to make or break.
But keep in mind it will still take some time for you to change your behaviors.
You’re human, and you’re constantly growing and learning! Which means you won’t be perfect, and you might slip up.
But you don’t have to do this alone.
You can take my FREE health and fitness quiz here.
This quiz will help you discover the main factor that's been keeping you from reaching your health and fitness goals, and you'll receive resources tailored to your needs to help you overcome the roadblocks you're facing.
You can also get support from the stellar coaches at KJO Coaching! We specialize in helping high-achieving women like you optimize their health, fitness, and mindset.
We will provide you with the education, support, and structure you need to see the results you’re after.
Click here to learn more!
Check out my original post here.
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