If you ever feel like you struggle to make positive, healthy lifestyle changes, you’re not alone.
The simple fact of the matter is that positive lifestyle changes are actually really difficult to make sometimes.
According to statistics, about 97% of people fail to live an objectively ‘healthy’ lifestyle.
But making changes isn’t easy, even if you know that you should make them.
Why?
Because as humans, we tend to be the products of our habits.
Habits are powerful behavioral programs that help us to perform routine functions without requiring us to be particularly motivated to do so.
Brushing your teeth is one example of a habit that you do every day; probably without even really thinking about it.
But see, here’s the problem.
There are good habits; but there are also bad ones.
Deprogramming yourself from a bad habit, and learning a new habit in its place, is actually a pretty complex process.
It requires weeks, months, and sometimes even years of routine repetition, and motivated concerted daily effort.
And let’s face it; most of us aren’t quite that motivated.
Most of us struggle to stick with new things, especially if those things aren’t easy.
And guess what?
New, healthy behaviors usually aren’t very easy to stick with.
But today, you’re going to learn a simple two-step process for how to start making small lifestyle changes that can add up to big positive differences over time.
The secret is that it all comes down to habits.
Step 1: Identify Bad Habits
This simple technique can help you identify and replace bad habits.
One of the best ways to start instituting healthier habits in your life is to replace bad habits with good ones.
But first, you have to identify the bad habits.
Start with just one.
If you try to do too much at once, you’ll get overwhelmed; and the likelihood that you’ll succeed will be significantly decreased.
Pick out one bad habit that you tend to do on a regular basis, and make the decision to remove it from your life.
Step 2: Replace That Bad Habit With A Good One
This could mean cutting out that candy bar you eat with lunch and eating an apple instead, replacing that morning donut with a banana, choosing to do push ups instead of watching 20 minutes of TV when you get home from school, etc.
Replace that bad habit with a good habit.
Now, here comes the hard part.
You have to make sure to continue to stick with this new good habit every single day; from now on until you decide to replace that new good habit with an even better one.
Here’s the issue. If you don’t stick with the good habit every day, and if you don’t completely abstain from the bad habit from now on, you’re not going to successfully switch the habit out at the automatic behavior level.
And eventually, you’re going to go right back to the bad habit.
That’s just how our brains work.
That’s how human behavior works.
To deprogram yourself and change direction, it’s vital to replace the old habits with new habits, and to consistently act out that change; every single day.
Conclusion
This simple habit-changing formula can help you to drastically increase the odds of succeeding at replacing bad habits with new and better ones.
Need some extra motivation?
Consider keeping a journal, and keeping track of how successful you are at sticking with your new routine on a daily basis.
If you mess up once, that’s okay.
Pick it up the next day, and keep going.
You might be amazed at how much different your habits can become when you use this formula.
Now get out there and make it happen.
You’ve got this.
