Changing Habits

Many people are very set in their ways and not at all adaptable to change and find changing habits especially difficult, especially if they feel a need to control their environment to feel secure.

The first stage is to make a personal commitment to step outside your safety zone, break your usual routines and try a new approach.  If what you have been doing up to now has not been working for then something needs to change.  This technique has been used highly successfully to help people lose weight, based on the research by Professor Ben Fletcher, Dr. Karen Pine and Dr. Danny Penman at the University of Hertfordshire.

The idea is simply to start doing things differently in all areas of your life.  The more you can demonstrate to yourself that you can change and your mind accepts it then the more power your mind develops to make any changes.

Changing Habits Stage 1

Start by changing simple things:

  1. Listen to a completely different radio station.
  2. If you buy a newspaper, stop. If you don’t then start buying one.
  3. Try different meals, don’t buy the same things every week.
  4. Travel home or to work on a different route or in a different way.
  5. Do something creative like painting or drawing.
  6. Go out to watch a live sports event or a live music concert.
  7. Volunteer for some charity work
  8. Start keeping a diary or write a story
  9. Go to different shops not the usual ones.

This list could go on and on, but you get the idea.  Try doing this for a few weeks, before progressing to the next stage.

Changing Habits Stage 2

The next stage is to begin changing your daily behavior.

Choose a day and behave in an opposite way to normal, when you can afford to.  Pretend you are an actor and make deliberate choices to behave differently.

  • Assertive -> Unassertive
  • Edgy and nervous -> calm and relaxed
  • Introverted -> Extroverted
  • Sharp and Intelligent -> A bit dim and giggly
  • Conventional and formal -> Unconventional and outrageous
  • Lone wolf -> Party animal

Experiment you will come up with a variety of ways to change your behavior.  Have fun.

Changing Habits Stage 3

The final stage is to start choosing particular days to focus what you do.

Choose a day to take action.  Start doing things towards your future.

Have days focused just upon you.  Be selfish, enjoy yourself.

Other days you can focus on the people around you, be extra helpful, do favors for people,  surprise them with some unexpected help or pointless gesture.

Conclusion

All of these small changes will start to change your underlying thinking.  Your unconscious mind will begin to see ways that it can change and begin to understand how easy changing habits can be.