Good Habits vs. Bad Habits

Why do you find it so hard to stick to good habits?

I have been asking myself this very question for a while. I know the basic reason can be linked to good habits that are less likely to be satisfying in the moment.

Good habits are generally something we make an effort to create, only to find that we drop them in no time. Bad habits on the other hand, are generally linked to immediate gratification which is what can make them stick quickly.

One of the more common bad habits is watching television which can lead to being sedentary throughout the day, eating more, and affecting our quality/quantity of sleep.

Let’s take a look at the statistics according to the bureau of labor statistics “men averaged about 3 hours per day watching TV, and women averaged 2 hours 34 minutes per day.” Now let’s compare that to the good habit of reading, which when we look at the statistics it paints a grim picture. As per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Americans over the age of 15 spend about 0.28 hours, or about 16.8 minutes, reading for personal interest each day. That’s down from 21 minutes in 2007.

You have to look at our daily habits and see how they are affecting our lives either positively or negatively. If you have a goal to reach or a resolution to keep, then analyzing these habits may be our ticket to success. 

How can we begin to create good habits?

1. Start by taking notes of all your daily habits and routines.

   • Take your bad habits and see which ones are potentially easier to change. Of course, changing these habits won’t happen overnight. However, the more you can change our mindset then the more we can change our bad habits. You have to stop saying it is impossible and start saying change is possible, then you can begin to look at our situation differently.

   • You should also remember that bad habits are generally more additive because we get instant gratification from them. Let’s take the ease of ordering food versus cooking it yourself. On the other hand, if you can take some time one day a week to plan out our meals, it would definitely take some of the decision making problems out of the equation. If you actually prepared our food in advance, it would tackle yet another issue of convenience.

2. Start small with your change.

   • If you get overwhelmed then changing your habits and behaviors can be really difficult.

   • You should pick one habit to change at a time. Now, if you have lots of things you want to change it may sound like this will take a long time. However, real change that is sustainable is the true goal here. You want to learn to appreciate delayed gratification, not instant gratification!

3. Make good habits accessible and easy

   • If you are having trouble drinking more water. Then you can make sure to have a water bottle within arms reach. A similar concept can be applied to your exercise equipment, which would be to put it somewhere you can see it and not tuck it away somewhere.

   • If you are having trouble remembering to track or get to your workouts/nutrition, try setting reminders to your phone or voice assistant device.

I hope this information helps you in some way or changes the way you think about your day. If you can change one bad habit, then how much better would you feel about yourself. We need to always remember that we can only control our mind and our actions. Now, let’s see if we can start making progress and stop making excuses.