How to cultivate new habits?

What is habit? Is it just Good or bad? It does not just end here. It holds a deep meaning. Habit is an interesting element of our lifestyle. It is a routine behaviour which gets repeated unconsciously.

As they say ‘Old Habits die hard’ and New Habits are hard to form because the behavioural patterns that we repeat gets embossed in us. Having said that, I would say it is possible to form new habits through continuation. Research says that at least 21 days are required to form one new habit.

How can you cultivate these new habits? Is there any particular way?

Habits can be analyzed in three parts:

*Cue – Cue is the thing which triggers our habitual behaviour. This could be anything that our mind associates with particularly and we automatically form a habit out of it.

*Behavior – The behavior is the actual habit that we demonstrate.

*Reward– This is absolutely a positive feeling. This is a receipt of our hard work.

As I mentioned earlier that habits could be good or bad. But, how do we distinguish it?

A key factor in distinguishing a bad habit from an addiction or mental disease is will power. If we have control over our behaviour, then it is a habit. Good intentions can override the negative effect of bad habits.

Eliminating bad habits:

There are many techniques for eliminating old established bad habits. Identifying and removing factors that trigger and reinforce the habit is key. Recognizing and eliminating them as soon as possible is advised. Habit elimination becomes more difficult with age because repetitions reinforce habits cumulatively over the lifespan.

Focus on rewiring habits:

I have been asked what diet plan to follow to lose weight (Is there a long term goal). To reach there we need to first achieve micro goals or habits.

These micro habits set our routine to lead a healthier lifestyle and weight loss is just the by-product.

Getting into a dietary routine will not be difficult as long as we are able to maintain regularity. Regarding the diet plan what my experience is people follow it for some time to achieve their goal but after certain period when they get into their old routine they are back to square one, which means it’s only giving you temporary results.

At GOQii we believe in developing all small and positive habits which them becomes a routine. (You may agree with me that breaking certain routines takes time as we discussed earlier) that means it stays with you for longer time. Eventually, this routine adds on to our disciplinary lifestyle.

Ultimately what is it that we are looking for? A permanent or temporary solution to our health?