Top 5 tips on building habits

  In the newsletter over the last couple of weeks, we have been talking about good daily habits and how they can, well, make life better. Here's my top five tips on building great habits:

1. Think about who you want to be. Do you want to be fitter, healthier and less tired? Grab a habit. Why do you want to be like this? To enjoy life more? To see more of your friends and family? Defining these things NOW will help you keep the right focus when the habit gets hard. Keep it in mind.

2. Do some research on the best steps to take to become that person and what the good habits to get into are. Do you want to sleep better? Know your stuff. This is a great article advising about bedtime habits and what to eat and drinks. If you find a lot of advice, try one or two things. Keeping your bedtime and rising time the same, eating three meals a day and physically wear yourself out during the day is a pretty good start.

3. Work out how you're get these changes happening in your life. Create a habit that you can achieve in a small way for a certain period of time. Floss once to start with. Then twice in two days. Then work up to a week. Give yourself a trigger. Make it the same time every day. Put the floss in a place where you will see it and put a big note up to remind yourself WHY you're doing this. Remember why you wanted to put in place that habit in the first place. See 1 above.

4. Adjust adjust adjust. Make your habits work for your own routine. Can't ditch the coffee but want to drink more water? Get your water habit going first and reward yourself with the coffee as a special treat. Can you find the 'trip up' point when you deviate to get the coffee? Is the coffee shop on the way to work? Check out the map to find an alternative route and take that once a week - without the coffee. Build up to twice a week and then three times. Eventually you can walk that way without the coffee every day. Remember the benefits and avoid the trip ups.

5. Be kind to yourself - you are going to fail. Everyone does. It's just getting used to the fact that after you fail you can start again and you realise that failing doesn't mean you're a failure. And the shorter the time between failing and starting again, the more likely it is becoming a habit.

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