In this post I shall share my experience in trying to inculcate good habits while dropping the avoidable habits.
A known thumb rule is that – when you perform an action for 21 consecutive days it becomes a habit; for an element of safety I extent that time limit to 30 days. I don’t know how this rule can be applied to weekly and monthly habits like “working out thrice a week”, “calling mom every Sunday”, etc; let me know if you have any ideas.
Obviously the first step is identifying a desirable habit. Next I need to convince myself that this is beneficial habit; because I have experienced that I give up mid way because I failed to see the benefits in it. For example, I am still struggling to become a vegetarian because I’m not convinced of its benefits.
Then I need to announce to myself that I need to cultivate this habit; by adding it to my system, it could be my HPDA or some visual reminders. Next comes the most critical period – doing the activity for 30 consecutive days. Now there could be days that I absolutely can’t do it; these are the days when I must do it. Once I completely to it for 30 days – then I can consider that I have converted a behavior to a habit.
Now I no longer need to monitor this behavior, my subconscious mind would raise an alarm every time I come close to skipping it.