The Secret To Building Habits And Not Giving Up

Habits are the fundamental way to improve your life and make yourself a better version of yourself but the struggle of building a habit and making it stick is extremely difficult so this article will tell you all you need to know about building a habit inspired from Atomic Habits by James Clear.

Fundamental of Habits

The best way to build a habit is to make smaller habits which build into a bigger habits and building small habits is way easier then building a big habit all at once. So to build a habit you need to build a system and as James Clear said

"You do not rise to the level of your goals you fall to the level of your system" - James Clear

Before building A Habit and more specifically a system to build a habit let's discuss what is a habit. A habit is a behavior or a set of behavior that has been repeated so many times that it becomes automatic and you don't need to think before doing it. The purpose of habits is to solve the problems of your life with as little energy and effort as possible.

Any Habit is basically a loop or a system which has four steps -: Cue, Craving, Response and Rewards. So to actually make a habit you need to incorporate all these things in your system. Let's start with what is

Cue - Cue is a action or a place which trigger

Craving - Craving is wanting to do the activity or to perform the habit

Response - What do we do when we get the cue and start craving it. This is the response.

Reward - The Final part is Reward what happens after you have done the response you get a reward which motivates you to do this activity again. Video Games use the same concept to make you crave wanting to play the game.

Steps to Build A Habit

Without further ado these are the 4 steps to build a habit

1. Making it Obvious - Trigger The Cue and Use This Formula -: I Will Do [Behavior/Habit] at [TIME] in [Location]. Let's say we want to build a habit of doing exercise everyday at 5 in the park. Well then using this formula we get - I Will Do Exercise at 5 in the morning in the park. Make this your cue. This is the core concepts how do you use this in your life. Well first break into smaller steps so this can be broken into setting a alarm at 5 and then just going to the park and once you reach the park that is going to be your cue to start doing your habit.
2. Making it Attractive - Join your a Culture or a group where the behavior you want to do is considered normal behavior. Taking our Example Join a group or create a group and invite all the people who do go to the park and do exercise and join them. Doing this now you are forced into performing the habit to continue with your group. To add the Craving Factor in this do something really enjoyable before doing the habit for example before going to the run or on the way to the park watch some Netflix or anime or whatever you enjoy and that's going to motivate you to do the habit.
3. Making it Easy - Reduce the friction between your current status and you doing the habit this can be done by getting your shoes right next to your bed or maybe sleep with them so that it reduces the step and friction between your habit. And if you still need motivation then break down the habit into a habit which can be completed into 2 minute task like tell yourself to plug your air pods in your ear and just stretch you legs without going to the park and eventually you'll go to the park.
4. Making it Satisfying - Give yourself an immediate reward when you actually managed to complete your habits it can be anything which you feel really good about. Make a Habit Streak where everyday you complete the streak you extend your streak and keep challenging yourself to beat your previous record. Never miss a habit twice unless you have a really good reason.Make progress report to see your progress.

Using these you can definitely build a habit which will stick and improve yourself slowly but surely if you want more details I would really recommend you to read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear it has completely changed my life and I am sure it will yours too.

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