Creating Lasting Habits

There's no greater feeling than realizing you're on your way to make positive changes in your life by starting a new habit. Out with the old and in with the new. But sometimes, once the thrill of starting a new habit wears off, it can be easy to lose sight of our goals, especially when we get distracted or busy. Like right now, a goal of mine is to incorporate more moments of rest throughout my day and really my life. This means having to prioritize certain things over others like less screen time, better work-life boundaries and more self-accountability, which sounds great in my mind but when life is happening, it can be really hard to put these into action and remember my goal. So how do we build lasting change? First, being gentle with the expectations you have towards your goals. Try to make them realistic and achievable. Let's say your goal is to read more. Instead of setting out to read three chapters of a challenging book every night, start with a fun read that you'll really enjoy and set out to read one page every week night. Then you can move to five pages, 10 pages, 15 pages, and so on. Make accomplishing your goal achievable and enjoyable. Next, anticipate obstacles and plan for them in advance. Maybe you'd like to feel less rushed in the morning and get to work on time, even if you work from home. You can set yourself up for success by planning ahead and preparing for what might happen. For example, prep the coffee machine the night before. Set a rule not to check your work emails until your workday starts. If you commute and your office is 20 minutes away, give yourself 30 minutes in case of heavy traffic. One more way to stick with the changes you've made is to remind yourself why you're doing this and why it's important to you. Try writing two lists to help you stay focused on your deeper motivation. On one side of a piece of paper, list all the reasons why you want to make a change. One example might be because rushing in the morning makes me feel stressed. On the other side of the paper, you can list out how making a change can help better your life. Maybe it's something like prepping the night before sets me up to be more calm and confident all day. Let's try taking the first step toward a change now. You'll need a pen and paper for this exercise and we'll leave some time for you to write in between questions. So feel free to pause the video. If you need more time. Reflect on a meaningful change you'd like to make in your life, and write down the answers to these questions. What is one small step you can take towards making that change? (light music) How are you going to anticipate and plan for obstacles that may come up? (light...