10 Steps to Create a Healthy Habit

Lupe Colangelo, Holistic Health & Life Coach

Ignited Coaching LLC

Www.ignitedcoaching.org

 When you created your business, your career, your financial plan, your education – there was some sort of system and logic you used. You strategized, adapted, and planned your journey. But do you struggle with making personal habits stick? Does your New Year’s resolution seem to escape you a few weeks in? Some people feel like they can’t “stick” with things like eating healthier, working out, or sleeping more. These habits are too important for you not to create – especially as a business owner. As a Holistic Health and Lifestyle Coach, I specialize in just that: habit change. Anyone can create a habit and stick with it… if they have the right steps in the right order. To map a habit scientifically using tools of positive psychology, let a health coach get you started.

  1. Map the habit: The more clear and specific your habit is, the easier it will be to create. We like to picture things in our brains, so give yourself a clear vision of what you can look forward to. “I want to eat healthier” looks different than “Eating healthy right now looks like including fruit in my breakfast 3 days a week.”
  2. Discover your obstacles: What has been stopping you from creating that habit already? In other words, why aren’t you doing it now? Whatever comes to mind, write it down.
  3. Prioritize: Decide which obstacle is important for you to overcome first and work on one at a time.
  4. Set up the conditions you need so that you cannot fail. What needs to be in place for this habit to be inevitable? What support do you need? What preparation is most realistic for you?
  5. Experiment: Take comfort knowing you WILL mess up in the beginning, but that’s part of the process. What do you learn every time you mess up? What is your body or schedule trying to tell you?
  6. Adapt: How can you improve for the next time based on what you learned?
  7. Reflect: How is this habit improving your life? How does it feel? Reflecting on how a habit affects you improves its strength.
  8. Prepare for consistency: Is there anything about this habit that still feels difficult? Prepare to keep improving so that your habit sticks in the long run.
  9. If you mess up, make a choice then and there: Is this mistake going to stop you, or give you a chance to learn?
  10. Acknowledge: Letting yourself celebrate a new habit before you rush into the next is a perfect way to boost your confidence. Too often, we rush from goal to goal without stopping in between to thank ourselves for the hard work.

 Creating a habit strategically makes you more likely to maintain it in the long-term. Your health and well-being deserve the same strategies and attention you use for any life goal you set. These steps help my clients in the long-term and now they’ll help you, too.