Building Habits Over Time
Revisiting your resolutions
If you’re like most Americans you started the year off with a laundry list of things you’d like to improve about yourself. This year you were going to lose 20 pounds, write a novel, snag that promotion, and run your first 5k.
And, along with most other Americans, those resolutions have fallen by the wayside now that we are nearly a quarter of the way through the year.
If something was worth doing on January 1, the chances are pretty good that it’s still worth doing. You may have fallen off the bandwagon somewhere between New Year’s fireworks and Valentine’s Day chocolates, but don’t let that stop you from meeting your goals.
Building new habits takes time. In fact, studies have shown that it can take up to 66 days to form a new habit. That’s a lot of time for you to go back to your old ways before your new habit has a chance to even take root. So how can you build positive habits into your life to give yourself the best chance of success?
TETHER YOUR HABITS
You already do some things every day. You wake up, eat breakfast, brush your teeth. One of the best ways to start a new habit is to tether it to a habit that you already have.
