The best way to start a habit

"Depending on what they are, our habits will either make us or break us. We become what we repeatedly do".

- Sean covey

Habits play a crucial role in one's life. What are habits? Habits are one's regular performance, more obviously, they are automatic. This term includes every action one does consistently in daily life from smoking cigarette during a tiresome job, to reading books before bedtime. Have you all noticed that bad habits are easy to form than the good ones? Because the bad habits give instant pleasures. For instance, having a plate full of fast-food gives greater satisfaction than reading pages of books.

That's why people easily stick on to these undesirable habits. But these habits never pay off. In the longrun they can ruin one's life. Actually the habits which yield remarkable results, need to be carried out daily with unfluctuating consistency. Over the long haul these habits aggregates and pay you off by replicating results. But more often people undervalue the impact of tiny changes. They have vague beliefs that massive result require massive action. Conversely, massive results are the compound interest of the daily small action. Such as reading one new concept each day can't make you a genius, but in the long run it will make massive transformation. Clearly, Bad habits cut you down into pieces while good actions build you up. So choose the actions that build you better each day.

Does having the best goal, change one's life? Even the winners and losers have the same goal. That means it's not the goal which differentiates the winners from the losers, rather the true player is the habitual actions which lie behind the goal. Absolutely one need to focus on the actions which take him to the goal. Just fix the right goal, then fell in love with the consistent actions. That's the key. Now let's focus on the best ways to start a habit. Oftentimes, the problem with people is not setting the right goal and choosing the specific action, rather the trouble is with sticking to the action regularly. Only when the actions done repeatedly to befit in the mental groove, they turn into a habit. So how to form a routine?

The first step is to make an "implementation intention", prepare a schedule of 'when' and 'where' to perform the action. Implementation intention is effective for sticking to our goals. Once the time and place are set, people don't need any kind of motivation to push. Initially start with small habits, don't stack oneself with multitudes of habits, which eventually get exhausted.

The second step is habit stacking, that is, choose a habit that you do regularly, and perform your new habit, right after your regular habit. Simply, pair the new habit with your current habit. This is a special form of implementation intention.

The third step is placing objects at the visible place. People often choose things not for "what they are" but for "where they are". Just as if the kitchen table is filled with fruits, whenever we cross the table, we pick up the fruits and eat, even when we didn't necessarily feel hungry. So design your environment so as to make your habit as the obvious option. If one need to paint regularly, then place the painting tools at the visible place.

The fourth step is surround yourself with people who have similar goals.People more likely choose the actions of the surrounding people. As your companions move towards their goal, so did your actions.

Even after these steps if one couldn't stick to the habit, then change the environment. Habits are easy to change in the new environment. Because the older distractions are no more exist in the new environment.

To conclude, moving with wise habits have incredible impacts on one's life. These microevolutions eventually turn oneself to master the ultimate game of life.