Recently I read an article about willpower vs habit - who trumps who? - Habit! And you know what, it make sense! We've all been there; "My diet starts tomorrow", "I'll just have a salad" - you reluctantly request out with your friends who proceed with "Burger...fries...diet coke..." and admittedly you start off well but, as the week goes on we slowly fall off the bandwagon. And it's not just about food choices, it can be everything; from writing that first page in a new journal; making it neat and pretty and as you flick through the succeeding pages your handwriting and effort slowly dwindles - I am guilty of this ALL OF THE TIME. For instance, painting my nails. OK so that seems like a pretty lame example but every so often I'll be at home lounging around and decide to paint my nails - then, a month later, the varnish has slowly flaked off and it stays that way till I have my next beauty related epitome. Another example; writing on this blog. I wrote a few posts, spruced up the page then a few days later I've been working every day and just haven't had the time. Another example, once every couple of months I decide I need to read more, so I start by reading articles online, then magazines and then pick up a book, and, as usual, life takes over and you forget a few times and then completely stop... do I need to carry on?
When you want to make a change - don't think 'WILLPOWER' and 'I WILL DO THIS, I WON'T DO THAT' > think > HABIT. Lets face it - when has willpower ever bought about a long term change or transition in your life? Willpower means to to control deliberately exerted to do something or to restrain one's own impulses. Yet, it's just not that easy. Willpower requires effort. We're only human and sometimes 'effort' is difficult to implement. For example, some days we are tired and tiredness decreases the amount of effort we exude - some days we are stressed, or down, and some days we just don't have the time however, think about any habits you carry out on a daily basis - we do them all almost mindlessly - like brushing our teeth to even locking your front door or car. Can you recall locking you door when you left this morning? Probably not, and you know why? Because you didn't even think about doing it. Habits become almost unconscious actions - they require minimal effort. A habit is built through frequent repetition which occurs because of cues and in turn it becomes a habit.
Supposedly 40 - 45% of the actions we carry out daily are based upon habit. So to bring about a change - create a habit. As mentioned, habits are created through cues - whether it's a good habit or a bad habit so to install a change we embed new cues or remove them old ones. To stop that naughty chocolate munch in the evening - stop buying chocolate = cue removed. Or to stop yourself from snacking on sweets get into the HABIT of making snacks - for instance every Monday make a bunch of snacks so that whenever a craving sets in you don't have to pick the bad option and after frequent repetition of this - eventually - as the theory goes - every Monday you'll get into the habit of making good snacks. It's about finding the cues that result in the bad habits and adding cue which cause good habits. Back to the naughty snack, maybe it's because your tired and previously before, to perk you up you ate a sweet - whenever you felt the same you did the same - the cue? The cue in this is tiredness - how to fix it? Sleep more, choose energy boosting foods that day, take more breaks, play some crazy music...
Make a list of your bad habits or what you want to change - find your cues - AND START SMALL.