If you want to change your life for the better, the fastest way is to increase good habits and decrease bad habits. For instance, drinking herbal tea is a good habit while drinking alcohol is a bad habit because the first energizes you and the second depletes you.
The idea is simple enough, but how do you do it?
There are three plans to help change your life that appear to have worked well for many people who tried them: the 30-day plan, the morning routine plan, and the 7 habits plan. Let’s take a look at each one:
The 30-Day Plan
Obviously, the way to change for the better is to create habits that stick or eliminate those habits that you no longer want to continue.
Here are three ways to make habits that stick:
If you can’t drop a bad habit, then choose one that is either neutral or less harmful. If, say, you smoke tobacco, your cravings could get in the way of quitting. So, one way to break the urge to crave tobacco is to switch to vaping by ordering ZampleBox’s best eliquid products. Now every time you feel an urge to smoke, you’ll just vape to experience the same psychological reward.
If you want to add a good habit, commit to doing it for 30 days. Usually, habits lock in within a month. Although it may take longer than a month, perhaps, even up to 3 months to change a habit, aim for 30 days at a time. Ideally, repeat the habit every day over the 30-day period.
If you want to increase your chances of success, keep the whole process simple. Choose just one habit you want to add or drop over the next 30 days.
The Morning Routine Plan
While the 30-day plan is a good way to acquire good habits or drop bad habits, it is a slow process because you need to stick to changing one habit at a time. Add too many changes and things fall apart.
Is there a way to change a number of habits each day and still remain consistent? Many self-improvement gurus believe that you can create a large number of changes by focusing on a morning routine that involves a series of habits that tie together.
Leo Babauta who founded the Zen Habits blog created the following morning routine:
He trained himself to wake up at 4.30 a.m., drink water, write down 3 big goals for the day, prepare lunch for himself and his children, eat a healthy breakfast, read, exercise or meditate, take a shower, and then wake his wife and children up. He did all this from 4.30 a.m. to 6.30 a.m.
The 7 Habits Plan
Steven Covey, the author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, took a broader, long-term approach to habit formation. He believed in following certain life principles so consistently that they became habits.
The first habit he recommended was to be proactive as much as possible. As a result, you became less reactive when something happened; you were at cause rather than responding to an effect.
The second habit he recommended was to never begin a major project without a clear vision of success, which he described as starting with the end in mind.
The third habit he recommended was to do things in the proper order of importance, which he described as putting first things first.
The fourth habit he recommended was to make sure everybody succeeded in any project, which he described as thinking win-win.
The fifth habit he recommended to change your life was to first try and understand what someone was thinking and feeling before trying to explain your own perspective, which he described as seeking first to understand then to be understood.
The sixth habit he recommended was to synergize, which he described as using innovation for solving problems.
The seventh habit he recommended was to consistently work on improving your physical, social, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being, which he described as sharpening the saw.
In summary, you can change your life by adding good habits and dropping bad habits. You can do this in three different ways: by working on an individual habit for 30 days, by working on a number of sequential habits first thing in the morning, or by following life-enhancing principles until they become habitual.
Move out bad habits is difficult but it can be done !