Forming a new habit may seem to be an easy thing to do, but there is always a two side to get there. First of all, it is easy as a habit may be a very brief action like brush our teeth, have a glass of water once waking up and so on. If we are not used to such action in our daily life, it will not be that easy as we have no motivation or solid reason to do so. Likewise, when we are prescribed with medicine and antibiotic by a doctor, we are aware that taking the medicine accordingly will help our recovery which then becomes our purpose and motivation to form that short-term habit to take medicine in a disciplined manner.

Let us get back one more step on finding why we want to have a new habit? Like how Einstein put it:

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By inserting new habits into our lives, only we have chances to change our current life quality and elevate ourselves constantly. Without doing so, it will be insane to expect any changes to happen (especially good changes), while repeating our routinely structured life. Yet, it is always an uncertain journey for us to pick up new things and do it from ground zero, but that is just what life is. I am also starting to embrace this spirit more than ever so that I could break the ‘outdated’ mindset that I had previously and become a better person through real action.

Here are 7 ways that I picked up a learning article from 得到 App.

Doing it step by step.

Most of the time, our dream is something big and not achievable just through one single step. Thus, it is important to segment the big dream into several smaller tasks. This will significantly increase the probability of realizing the goal. However, how should we segment the goal sensibly?
Sean Young, a psychologist from UCLA suggested that we should first differentiate between dreams, goals and steps. A dream takes time to realize which may be 3 months or more while goals may be achievable within a week or a month. Then, the step is something that can be done within an hour or a day which is what we should put more focus on doing after strategizing our dream realization scheme. Once we identified those three components, we need to list them out and start the action. The advice is to repeatedly focus on both goals and steps (which I think tasks can be another word to describe). Along the way, we will need to review our performance and keep the improvement going until our eventual dream realization.

Find a role model.

This makes it easier for us to realize our dream through a role model. We can study their traits, like how they work, how they think, how they manage their day, how they invest and so on. With more similarity between us and our role model, we have a higher chance to achieve success like them.
Furthermore, it is more advisable to find a role model through a community which is much more sustainable. While having an individual role model can be more efficient but once the person is down and unable to mentor us, it will drastically affect our progress. Hence, being in a community that has 15% or more people that carry the traits of your role model, that would further increase our success rate.

Find a strong and solid purpose.

Obviously, we do not do something unless we have a purpose, an intention. Therefore, this applies to our habit making as well. It is crucial for us to find a solid purpose for ourselves to carry out every action as each one matters to us very much. Sometime, we might be just being ‘kiasu’ (not wanting to lose) and follow suit on what other more successful people are doing like waking early, reading and so on. This kind of habit will not last as it is based on competition and not a solid purpose meant for our life betterment.

Traditionally, we may think that some of us are more motivated to do many things while others prefer to just chill and relax. Nevertheless, this has been proven wrong scientifically as failing to learn a new habit is normal but does not signify that we will fail in the future. This is not something genetically hereditable but it just needs more purpose and reasons for us to work on. Imagine that one day, a person loses all his money and his parents are not able to help him any further. The purpose of him to survive will be so strong that he will do whatever it takes to keep himself alive. We just need the kick and the kick needs not to be something dreadful.

Less is more, keep it simple.

Our mind is a silly thing that it dislikes complicated stuff. While we can process complex situation, it takes up a lot of brain power which will render us mentally tired and not able to perform optimally after that. Hence, to prevent such burnout, it is better for us to create a simpler habit for ourselves to pick up. We can change our environment like choose a different setting for us to do a different task. Like writing for my blog, I will prefer to be properly sited and not disturbed by anyone (can be café, library or my own private desk).

Next, reduce our option in our daily routines like picking clothes, things to eat, tasks to do and so on. The lesser choice we made, the clearer our mind is to do more challenging tasks. This will also reduce the tendency of us not doing the tasks that we set due to overwhelmed with options. Lastly, it is best to have a roadmap like how all the project and initiative have on Steemit. When we have a clear map on what to do next, it will reduce the possibility of us getting lost and confused with what we are heading next.

Mind follows action.

The norms told us that we need to change our mindset then only we can make a difference. However, the recent study shows that by inserting new micro habits and change our old bad habits slowly, that will lead our mind to change eventually. For example, if we want to pick up some fitness habit (like swimming, jogging, push up, sit up, etc), we can go for short 5 to 10 minutes version first and ‘educate’ our mind to adapt to such action. Slowly, when we feel more effortless in following the routine, we can slowly increase the dose stage by stage. That will tremendously decrease the difficulty to pick up great habits.

Create the fun.

Gamify the task if possible and do not use money as the reward for the gamification. The fun can be something like organizing a team that does the single habit together and have some mark and reward system. This will increase the fun and competition between the members to make it through. Plus, during bottleneck times, we can share our problems and emotion which will keep each other moving like how we deal with hiking and marathon. It is just about making every step until we make it. Nothing hard but the resilience and discipline.

Repeat it like breathing!

Lastly, it is about repeating the action and increase the exposure of the goals that we want to achieve through different senses. We can pick up listening to a podcast and some favourite videos of our role model, listen repeatedly and absorb the aura. Then, we can print out different posters and write sticky notes for us to keep us reminded on what we want to achieve and do. Also, preparing healthy and great taste food like fruits can be a reward for us and keep it a habit for us to consume constantly. The list goes on and just remembers to repeat all of the action until the actions become part of us. Then, this is when we had acquired a new habit.

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Well, writing all of these are part of my way to psycho me and keep myself reminded on what I want to achieve. Hope it stands useful for my readers as well and please share your way on how you pick up a new habit.

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