How to Create a Good Habit: Easy and Painless

How to Establish any Habit Painlessly and Easily

1. At a specific time, get ready to do the activity

2. You don't have to do it, just get ready, get in position and begin (like do one second if that's all you want)

3. Keep at it. You'll have the habit down in a week or less.


Example:


I decided I wanted to exercise every day when I got home from work.

Except of course I never felt like exercising when I got home from work. I wanted to go through the mail, rest, have a snack, etc.

So I said, okay, every day when I get home from work, I'll go to my Wii, turn on Dance Dance Revolution and then just do whatever I feel like doing. Surprise, surprise. At that point, I pretty much always feel like dancing one song, as in, "Well, I'll just do one." It's a fun game, so there will be a few "Well, I'll just do one more."

When I'm done on the Wii, I'll most often think, "Okay, I'll just sit on the TotalGym and see what happens."

And I'll do a short weight training workout too.

This was an extremely easy way to establish a habit.

And if I'm ever really, genuinely, too tired to exercise after work, no problem. I'll just get ready, turn on the Wii, stand it front of it, decide I'm too tired, and I don't have to do it. But I won't have blown off exercising. I'll have still abided by my habit.

Helpful hints:

1. Exercising when you're tired after work makes a lot of the tiredness go away

2. Consider keeping your Wii on all the time. That way it's ready to go and it's less hassle. I think it's better for the machine, too, since the fan is going and it doesn't overheat. I think when it's in off/standby mode, it can overheat and burn out. I don't know. I used to keep it on all the time and it was fine. Then I decided to save energy by turning it off. When I turned it on it was broken.