How do you develop healthy new habits?

It’s often easy to have a goal in mind, but actually achieving it can be hard. By developing healthy habits, you can achieve more than just your goal, and more importantly, sustain it long-term!

How do you recognize habits?

A large part of the day we perform actions on autopilot, without being aware of our (good and bad) habits. It is therefore important to first observe your habits before you can actually change them. Sometimes it can be useful if someone else points out your habits, since we do not always recognize them ourselves.

Changing habits often works better than just pursuing your goals. For example, let's say you have a goal of losing 5 kg. You can then follow a diet and in principle you are done once you have achieved this goal. For some people this is a good approach. However, the problem often lies in the fact that those 5 kg can just as easily come back, because you have not changed your habits. A diet is often a temporary solution, because it is difficult to maintain it for your entire life!

How do you adjust them?

To change habits, it is important to look at where, with whom and when you have certain habits. External factors often have more influence on our behavior than we think. By becoming aware of when you have certain habits, you can start to change them. By performing an adjusted habit more often, you get used to it and it eventually becomes a new habit. You will notice that it takes less and less time and effort to perform this new habit. Moreover, it is important to realize that if you get a good feeling from a new habit (or a small adjustment you make), the time and effort it takes are definitely worth it. If you keep this in mind when introducing new habits into your life, it will be easier to actually get started with them!

Remember that it takes time and effort to form new habits, but also realize that by adjusting your habits you can go further than you originally expected!