Wednesday, September 15, 2010

how to create a habit?

i got this wonderful tip from lifehack, a set of tips on how to make a good habit stick. i change a few of them to suit my own needs but the general idea is from there. :P

about 18 habits in total. quite a lot to remember, so i made an acronym for it.
PWD BIT STORED

People / Plus / Pain
People - get role models (people) that have created this habit and gotten successful outta it. 
Plus - what do you gain by this new habit.
Pain - what kinda pain u gonna get if dont do it.

Write
Write - write down the habit you wanna create with all the actions you need to do to get it.

Day
Day - total days to create a habit is 40 days imo. :P

But
But - whenever you have negative thoughts in your head, use "BUT" to stop it.
Example? I dont think i can stick to this habit BUT if i pray and try harder i might just do it :)

Imperfect
Imperfect - don't try to be perfect, progress from imperfection.

Trigger
Trigger - make a trigger ie an anchoring action before you do your habit.
Example? Snap your fingers before you switch off the TV to do work at 9pm. So everytime before you do this habit, you snap your fingers first.

Same / Swish
Same - Do the habit the same way at the same time in the same setting if you can. Makes it easier to establish the habit.
Swish - use the swish technique from NLP to create the new habit. you can learn more about swish in here, here, here and here.

Temptation
Temptation - remove temptations from all around you, so you dont have to waste willpower trying to combat them everyday.

One
One - start off with one simple habit to create. it's good to try changing one habit at a time so you don't feel overwhelmed.

Remind / Replace
Remind - remind yourself everyday about your commitment to create this new habit. The plus and pain too!
Replace - replace negative things that can deter or spoil your new habit with positive ones. For instance, if you wanna create a habit to work at 9pm, and you usually snack at 9.15pm, replace the snack thingy with something positive, like chewing carrots instead. :P

Experiment
Experiment - dont criticize or analyze the techniques we've been talking about. Just experiment on them to see whether it works or not.

Daily
Daily - make a daily effort to create the one simple habit you decided. Try your best to do it everyday to make the habit stronger.

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