As I started to thing about New Year’s Resolution I remembered I had a section on changing habits in Messengers in Denim, and aren’t resolutions about changing habits? So below is a somewhat modified copy of pages 268-269. My hope is this will help you and me keep our resolutions and become better people in 2012.
“Some of us have a few habits that need to be changed; others have many. We all have room in our lives to become better, to improve our health, to change our way of life. And we can do so by consistently making good choices until we have developed the habit to overcome our past behavior. Whatever our age, we all need to periodically review our health habits; our lives depend on them.
Sometimes developing new habits is, in reality, changing an entire life style, and adjusting to that “new life”. When adjusting to change, our attitude is always more important than the physical problem.
Ian Newby-Clark, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, who studies habit change, claims there are five steps to forming a new habit.
Work on One Habit at a Time. If you work on changing more than one habit at a time, you run a serious risk of overwhelming yourself and changing no habits at all.
Create a plan. Write it down, and be as specific as possible. Know what you want to do. Visualize it!
Refine your plan. Ask yourself, is your plan realistic? Lay your plan aside for a day or two and come back to it with fresh eyes. Ask a friend to review it to be sure it is a doable habit and not pie-in-the-sky.
Make Mini-Plans. Once your plan is as good as you can make it, break it down into steps or mini-plans.
Repeat! Repeat! Repeat! Repeat your behavior until it is automatic.
It usually takes about three weeks of repetitive behavior to develop a new habit or change an old one. If the habit has been around a long, long time, it may take more repetitions and more time, but persistence pays off and in time, even if there are relapses, the new habit can overcome the old. Many habits are so difficult that it takes much longer to develop them. Just think of how long it takes to become an accomplished musician. The many hours of daily practice soon become weeks of practice, months of practice, and then years of practice. To the virtuoso, practice becomes a habit, a way of life!”
Now, I am sure not many of us are willing to work hard enough to become a virtuoso pianist, but many of us need to loose some weight; stop smoking, start exercising, return to church, or read more. What ever it is that you desire to change, remember you are not alone.
Let us know what things you are working to change in your life; and keep us informed about your progress! We’re on your side! And I know you are on mine!
Go for change with gusto,