The habit of building new habits!

Every January feels like Groundhog Day. There is an atmosphere of excited but nervous anticipation in every crowded fitness class. Impatient queues build for gym equipment. Parks and pavements are pounded under the soles of fresh trainers. Shiny new water bottles are everywhere – maybe Santa had a surplus of them!

By March the vibe is distinctly different. The classes are quieter and populated by regulars and a few tenacious newcomers. The gym equipment is accessible when needed, there is less activity outside and the trainers have been consigned to the back of the cupboard full of things no-one uses. The water bottles are either in the same cupboard or carried like trophies with scratches and dents adorning them.

Why does this same sequence of events happen every year? Do we have an inbuilt pattern of behaviour similar to birds migrating – but involving torturing ourselves into behaviours that are unnatural to us? How do we make those unnatural behaviours into natural habits? Do we actually need to? Why do some of us succeed but others fail?

What the experts say

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey is a successful self-help and business book. There is a reason for this – we all strive to create new habits and continue with them so a book which offers simple steps to achieve this is always going to be a best seller!

For those unfamiliar with the 7 Habits, they are:

1. Be proactive (take responsibility)
2. Begin with the end in mind (what is the future you want?)
3. First things first (prioritise)
4. Think win-win (build relationships and collaborate)
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood (actively listen)
6. Synergize! (teamwork achieves more)
7. Sharpen the Saw; Growth (physical and mental renewal for a sustainable lifestyle)

This is a great common-sense approach and I would recommend going through each of the above when setting new intentions for yourself.

Another useful book which is very accessible and gets straight to the point is the no-nonsense Leadership Plain and Simple by Steve Radcliffe. If you are in the process of evaluating what to do and why – this has many useful, practical exercises you can do. Steve’s Future Engage Deliver (FED) approach is summarised below:

• Leading always starts in the Future with ideas and thoughts about how you’d like things to be
• Second you have to engage people so that they want to build that Future with you
• Then you draw the best from yourself and others to make things happen

I was fortunate enough to be coached as a FED Leadership Enabler at work and this approach really does have the capacity to change people’s lives. In fact it was instrumental in my becoming a Yoga Teacher – proof that investing time and thought in determining what you want, why and how you will achieve it really is worth it!

However, wanting to create new habits and persist in them is not a recent trend. In the Yoga tradition, Patanjali was writing about habitual practice in the Yoga Sutras over 1500 years ago!

“Practice becomes firmly grounded when well attended to for a long time, without break and in all earnestness.”

Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, No. 14

All new habits take time to establish – giving up after a few weeks means an activity will not become a habit. They need to be repeated frequently and consistently, not sporadically. They also need to be undertaken with good intention and attitude – your heart has to be in it to succeed!

Finally, it may be worth asking why you need to undertake this new activity.

• What are you trying to achieve – is there a better way of achieving it?
• Why are you trying to achieve the above – what is your real motivation?
• Is this the most important thing you need to achieve or are you focussing on it at the expense of something more important?
• What are you avoiding?
• How realistic is it – will you be able to sustain this new habit throughout the year or will other things constantly get in the way?
• Will this new habit be enjoyable to do or will the result of the habit be enjoyable?
• If you are focussing on the result, how long will this take to achieve and how will you maintain it?

Whatever you are aiming to achieve, I wish you patience, persistence and lots of enjoyment!