How To Build Good Habits

Habits are the things we do, but also, and maybe as importantly, the way we think and what we believe. They include the self-beliefs that influence what we do, our behavior, and the actions we take. If you want to better yourself, you have to build good habits.

Our lives today are essentially the sum of our habits. How healthy or unhealthy you are? A result of your habits. How happy or unhappy you are? A result of your habits. How successful or unsuccessful you are? A result of your habits. And it goes on like this.

You might have tried to start a new habit, especially as a New Years Resolution, but have you stick to it? How often do you lose the motivation to continue with the habit again and again and again? You start big and motivated, but then a week later you’re too lazy and you miss one day, you miss two and then you just forget about it. It’s true, right? We are all in the same boat, me, you, everyone.

As the old saying goes “Rome wasn’t built in one day” so there is a strategy to build lasting habits, but in the end the most important thing is you. Here’s some strategies to get you started:

Start Small

Don’t go for 50 pushups every day if you haven’t done one or two like ever. Don’t go for reading 1-2 hours every day. Don’t go for replying to 150 emails every day if you normally stop just after replying to 5. Start small. 

Do 10 pushups every day. Start by reading 10 pages or go for minutes like “Read for 15 minutes every day”. Make it easy enough that you can get it done without motivation.

Go big, slowly

You started small and that’s great. Now after a week, start to slightly increase the number of pushups you do every day, the number of minutes you are reading every day, the number of replies you send every day and so on. 

Small increases every week, two weeks, months or heck, even days will have a massive impact as you go through with your habit. You will see the actual progress in your body and soul and you will be more motivated to keep getting better.

Don’t miss twice

You will make a mistake. You will miss doing a one or two habits one day for any number of reasons. Maybe you can’t run for 30 minutes cause your day is fully packed. Maybe you can’t read for 30 minutes cause you are tired after pulling a night shift. It happens to the best of us.

But the best get back on track as quickly as possible. You don’t want to miss twice, cause if you do does it matter if you miss for a third, fourth time? You just need to be consistent, not perfect. If you fall, just get up again. 

Benji makes this as easy as it gets. Setup up your habits, start small and increase gradually.