How To Change a Habit - Free Self Help Guide

The first step is to make a commitment to change the habit.

It's not enough to think maybe you should change a habit, it's important to commit to it.

"I think I should lose weight" or "It would be nice to drop 15 pounds" is not committing.

"I will lose weight!" is a powerful statement and your subconscious knows it.

Be passionate about it, feel excited, write it down, tell someone else, and define your start date.

Arm yourself with the knowledge you need to make the change.

If you want to stop smoking, there are some options available that have better success rates and you would do well to learn what these are.

If you desire to stop mindlessly eating sweets after dinner, come up with some acceptable alternatives and write them down so you can refer to them nightly.

Replace a bad habit with a good habit.

If you want to stop watching so much TV, start taking walks with your spouse or kids instead.

When you take away a bad habit, there's a hole that needs to be filled with something else and you get to decide what it's going to be!

Some days might be better than others, but you can't really make a good assessment unless you keep track.

Keep a journal or track your progress on a chart, if applicable. Ask for feedback from others if the habit is harder to track.

Reward yourself after you've reached a certain goal or even an intermediary goal.

Remember there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Current wisdom tells us it takes an average of 21 days to break a habit. That means you might have mild annoyance or quite a bit of stress for three weeks, but it won't last forever.

You might even kick the habit sooner. If you feel you can't do it alone, it's okay to seek professional help. You've got the rest of your life waiting for you, and it looks promising.

Bad things happen, stress builds up, we feel awful and we can't wait for the day to get over so we can start fresh the next day.

But sometimes, we have a hard time pulling out of the funk and one bad day turns into a horrible week or month. If it seems like you're stuck in one of these times and can't find a way out, you might need to change your thinking first.

When you let temporary bad times continue to get to you until you feel a bit like you're drowning it means you're seeing your life through the eyes of a victim.

You are allowing circumstances to control you instead of you controlling your life. Try one of all of the following to help you jump out of the victim roll back into the designer of your day.

This may sound strange, but if you clean out a closet, you are taking control of that closet and ultimately your home.

You are the boss.

You've gotten rid of the stuff you don't need that's crammed in there and now it's a clean, attractive, functioning part of your life.

This may seem too easy but it works.

It doesn't matter what's getting you down, you can make yourself feel better about YOU if you exercise.

You might have to trick your mind to get started -

** "I'll just put on my tennis shoes and see what the air feels like outside."

** "I'll just walk down the street to get the mail."

** "I'll just pick up my pace and go around the block... maybe twice."

Exercising serves several purposes; you're doing something good for you which makes you feel better, you're having a positive impact on your health, you're relieving your stress by not thinking about your troubles for a bit, and you're in charge of your body.

The goal doesn't have to have anything to do with your current problems and it might do you good to actually switch your thoughts to a new direction.

For example, if your problems stem from your job, make a new goal to learn to paint with watercolors or start an online blog surrounding your favorite hobby.

When you have goals, no matter how small, you're taking positive steps forward in creating the life you enjoy, and that feels good.

Sometimes a bad day only lasts one day but if you get stuck in a long negative rut, try these positive, take-charge-of-your-life ideas to get back on track.

There are many areas you can work on to develop the type of life you would like, but here are some tips to remember as you start this personal journey to change a habit for a better lifestyle or wellbeing.

1. The decision to make changes has to come from you.
In other words, you have to want to make the change and want it enough to overcome the obstacles you will face.

2. Don't have a victim mentality.
You are the one in charge of your journey and you have the power to change. Resist the urge to make excuses for your life and find ways to move forward. Own your mistakes along with your successes.

3. Focus on what you want to improve and arm yourself with ways to do it.
Sometimes you need more information and other times you have to trick your mind into doing what you want. Zero in on it.

4. Have a big hairy goal but take small steps, always taking forward action, until you reach it.
Don't try to move your whole world at once, concentrate on one area of improvement at a time for greater success.

5. Persevere until your new actions become habits.
Take it one day at a time and don't beat yourself up when you have a rough day. And you will have rough days.

6. Congratulate yourself on your successes.
Sometimes you can be striving so hard to reach a personal goal that you forget to stop and look how far you've come and all that you've achieved. Remember, personal development is an interesting journey.

7. You're not really developing if you don't do stuff that scare you.
It's time to get out of your comfort zone and shake up the way you've always done things. If the thought of this makes you break into a sweat, take a shower and get to work on it.

The purpose of self-development is to help you grow as a person.
Find some self-help books that will aid you in your quest to improve yourself. This isn't a quick trip to Grandma's, it's a long and winding road that can be uphill, rocky, and full of potholes.

However, the scenery along the way is beautiful and interesting and you get to stop and stretch your legs when you need to.