"The Way to Forming a New Habit "

It’s that time of the year when we think about what resolutions to make for the new year’s. Every year, we plan on a new resolution or set a goal to form a new habit and promise ourselves that we will follow it no matter what. While there are instances where a few have achieved it, most of us struggle to keep up with the resolution. Sometimes, we try our best to follow it as long as we can, sometimes we leave it midway and at other times we keep pushing the start date and never start at all!

So, why is it that we do what we do? Developing a habit is not as easy as saying – “I am going on a diet from tomorrow!” or “I will run 5km every day starting tomorrow.” It takes a lot of determination, speaking, writing and sharing your intentions, self and group motivation and giving up on temptation to make way through this new step. Not to be forgotten, patience is one of the key factors. Beyond all of this, there are a few more things to bear in mind.

These few steps ensure that you don’t punish yourself but rather help yourself in mastering the new habit. Let’s take a look at what these things are.

Know your pattern

Before you start developing a new habit, you need to analyze your daily pattern. For example, if you are set out to cut down on sugar intake, you first need to analyze how much and how often you consume sugar. If your idea is to start exercising, then take a look at how active you are – do you take walks often (it could even be a slow walk to the nearest grocery store or a daily walk routine), do you play any form of sports, are you a dancer? and so on.

Analyzing these patterns helps you understand how well your body is accustomed to a certain activity and provides you a perspective on how easy it will be for you to tune your body to the next stage.

Plan

Once you have analyzed how flexible your body is to the new habit you plan to develop, you need to plan on how to make this habit a part of the daily routine in your life.

One wrong thing most of us do in the process of inculcating a new habit is that we throw our body to the extreme end of what we have been doing - from eating cake and adding two spoons of sugar to your coffee to no sugar at all or from not even walking 500m a day to start running 5kms a day. When you resort to doing that, the body might get confused and feel exhausted quickly. This makes you want to give up on your plan, after a few days and the process of forming this habit starts getting difficult.

The trick is to start small and set achievable goals. Start with cutting down one spoon of sugar for the first week and then move to no sugar in coffee. Plan to walk 2-3 km a day and then increase it by a km every 3/5th day, depending on how much your body can take it.

Stick to plan

One of the most important steps in forming a new habit is to stick to the plan, no matter what. More than developing a habit, it is important that you stick to that habit. Never give in to exceptions. This way, you are slowly telling yourself to adjust to the new habit and make it a part of you. When it is a part of your daily routine, there is no going back; your body will automatically demand it. So, stick to the plan until you reach that stage.

Be patient

Being patient is as important as being determined in this process. Depending from person to person, it may take a few days to months to achieve your goal. Stay patient and go with the flow, never beat yourself up or give up on yourself too quickly.

Tell others

While self-motivation plays a key role, make it a point to tell others about your new habit. You will see how you are more disciplined and more determined when you know others are watching you. Plus, it is always good to have someone motivate you when you give in to temptations or feel lazy. You can also be part of groups to help each other attain a certain goal. KellyKinetix runs the healthy habit challenge, every once in a while, to support people in developing new and healthy habits and these challenges have received a great response over the past year. It has been an amazing experience, to me personally, to see how people stay strong and determined and share their experience which motivates others to do even better and together everyone works towards their goals. The energy and positivity that goes around within the group during this challenge is just amazing. Are you planning to start a new habit or make a resolution? Join the KellyKinetix HealthyHabit Challenge and together we will work towards it - click this link to register https://www.eventbrite.com/e/kellykinetix-14-day-holiday-challenge-registration-218503569057