5 Powerful Ways to Build a New Healthy Habit

How often have you promised yourself that starting from New Year’s Day, the first of the next month, or the beginning of the week, you would begin a new life? You’d go to bed early and wake up early, well-rested, prepare healthy meals, exercise, and learn a dozen English words daily. If you’ve managed to implement any of these, congratulations! You are part of the fortunate 1% of the population with the iron will to break through walls and conquer cities. The remaining 99% of us mere mortals are unlikely to change all our habits instantaneously—and that’s perfectly normal. Healthy habits are introduced gradually, “one spoonful at a time,” carefully training each one and adapting them to our needs. Only then will they stay with us for years, truly beneficial and enjoyable.

1. Don’t Take On Everything at Once

A common belief is that a new habit can firmly root itself in our minds in 21 days. Statistically, this is often true, but statistics can be tricky. Do you consider yourself an average person? Probably not, as we are all unique. Therefore, we also acquire habits in unique ways. Some may need a couple of weeks, while others might take a month and a half. If the habit seems easy and aligns well with what a person already does, it will take much less time. Conversely, if adopting a new habit requires stepping out of your comfort zone, it will take longer to get used to it.

Therefore, don’t introduce more than one habit at a time. If you decide to lead a healthy lifestyle, list all the new habits you need. Identify the most important one, put it first, and start with that. Once you learn to get enough sleep and stop being irritated by going to bed before midnight, you can move on to morning runs or counting calories in every meal. If you try to change everything at once, the entire system will likely cause so much discomfort that you will not only abandon it but also become disappointed in yourself, marking it as a “failure.” This would be a big mistake!

2. Take Small Steps

If a habit is very unfamiliar to you, don’t dive into it headfirst. It might completely contradict your current lifestyle, making its introduction inconvenient and potentially stressful. For example, if you want to start exercising at home, don’t immediately buy a rigorous hour-long interval training video course. If you really like it, buy it and put it on the shelf as a visualization of your ultimate habit.

Start simple: with beginner complexes lasting 20-30 minutes. If these are also challenging, begin with a 15-minute morning warm-up. Then add another 15 minutes of exercises during the day before moving on to beginner courses. There’s nothing wrong with progressing slowly towards your goal—the important thing is that you are moving and regularly increasing your pace.

3. Show Off Your Achievements

Boasting can lead to arrogance, and others may not appreciate self-praise. However, when it comes to forming a new habit, showing off can work in your favor. This isn’t the kind of boasting that causes envy or aggression. Share your small achievements on social media and Twitter, post photos on Instagram, and tell your friends a little so they can rejoice with you. This will also give you a small “push” for the future—after a few days, acquaintances, colleagues, and friends will ask about new results, preventing you from abandoning what you started.

4. Focus on the Process as the Goal

We adopt new habits to improve ourselves. For example, to lose 5 kilograms or learn English. But if you set such a specific result-oriented goal, the habit will be shaky and unstable. It’s best to set the goal as a process. Instead of learning English, aim to learn 5 new words and some grammar daily. Instead of losing a certain number of kilograms, aim to fully control your weight. This approach will make you feel that the habit is not a temporary emergency measure but a permanent part of your life. Once you achieve the desired result, you won’t stop there but will continue moving forward, possibly slightly changing your habits once again.

5. Don’t Give Up If You Slip

When working towards your goal—forming a new habit—anything can happen. Ideally, you introduce it into your life easily and naturally. This can indeed happen if you follow our advice. However, if for some reason you break the new rules of existence, don’t consider it the end of the world. Mistakes happen to the best of us. The important thing is to immediately “sound the alarm” and quickly return to the new habit, rather than giving up and reverting to the old one just because you slipped. One mistake won’t make a difference, but several in a row can affect habit formation. So don’t worry about single failures and keep yourself in check, no excuses. Then everything will work out for you.

For more insights on building healthy habits, check out this authoritative guide.