feeling mainly comes from a sense of accomplishment. This reward can
help stimulate the dopamine release that helps form the habit memory. The
more you actually enjoy what you’re doing, the more likely you’ll stick
with it.
Go slow and let it flow
Once you feel confident that you’re able to stick
with a small,
new habit, allow yourself to take the next step. It’s likely
you’ll do this naturally, without prompting. For example, if you enjoy your
morning fruit, you’ll probably find it easier to cut out one bite of your
breakfast bacon or egg yolks. You might find yourself doing that second
and third pushup just because you can. You
might extend your deep-
breathing practice before reading emails to doing it before meetings or
during your commute because it feels good.
Be flexible
If one goal isn’t working, be willing to swap for a goal that
does. Say, for example, you’ve decided to go to your local rec center every
day to exercise. But you don’t relish the prospect
of getting dressed and
driving somewhere just so you can get sweaty in public. Then change it to a
different, smaller goal and link it to something you already do that you
enjoy. Say you opt to exercise at home in your pajamas while watching
your favorite morning show.
My wife, who is a nurse, and I often sit in the kitchen when we get home
and
talk about our day, which we really enjoy doing. Frequently, we’ll have
some cheese and maybe a beverage together. But one day we realized we
were eating about 500 calories of cheese! So we decided to buy a good
cheese knife so we could slice it very thin and also cut slices of apple and
pear to put the cheese on. This way, we took a habit we enjoyed and made it
better by eating healthy but still got the flavor
of the cheese without eating
as much.
Troubleshooting
What happens if you hit a wall while trying to change? We
all stall out sometimes. Here are some tips to help keep you
going:
Dostları ilə paylaş: