Believe You Can Change Your Habits and Find Your Motivation

I was not convinced that beliefs had a huge impact on habits until I read The Biology of Belief by Bruce Lipton. Lipton is a former medical school Professor and research scientist who examined the mechanism by which cells receive and process information, and after years of research he found that biology adapts to our beliefs.

According to his research, our beliefs control our behavior—and can even control our genes. By changing our behavior, we can change our habits and consequently our lives.

If you believe—truly believe—you can change your old habits or introduce new ones, that belief will control your behavior. Because of that I would recommend that you primarily work on those habits that you believe you can change or introduce into your life.

For example, let’s say I want to establish a habit of daily exercise. First of all, I very much believe and know that I can establish this habit.   I also believe that I will find the time to do it. If need be, I will stop doing something  else that is less important to me at this point. If nothing works, I believe I can wake up 20 minutes earlier than usual to establish this habit. I strongly believe (and this is actually a fact) that this habit will help me improve my overall well-being. Therefore, my belief will drive my behavior toward achieving this habit and putting it in place.

TIME IN

Which of your habits do you believe you can change? Why? Which new habit can you introduce into your life? Why? Do you really believe you can do this? List those habits and make a commitment.

Another thing you need to keep in mind is motivation. You need to be highly motivated for the establishment of new habits to work effectively.

By this, I mean that you must have a strong reason for establishing your new habit. This becomes your motivation and needs to be something that resonates with you personally, and not just something that someone else wants you to do.

Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “He who has a ‘Why’ to live for can bear almost any ‘How.’” Therefore, in order to change and/or introduce a new habit, you must have a strong why otherwise the change will not happen. A strong why will motivate you and help you make the necessary shift.

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Think for a moment about one habit you want to change or a new one you want to introduce into your life. How motivated are you to introduce this habit? Why do you want to do it? Do you have a why strong enough to make it happen?

In his book, The Now Habit at Work, Neil Fiore introduces the idea of “Just Keep Starting.” Starting the process of creating new habits is difficult, especially if the idea for a new habit is a routine that may take, say, 30 minutes a day, three or four days a week (or more). If on top of that you are struggling with motivation, it will not be easy to implement that habit.

Instead of thinking about how something might be impossible to achieve, think about just starting. Even start by exercising five minutes a day. We can all find five minutes in our day. It’s hard to find an excuse to not “just start” with such a routine.

If you’re really struggling for the motivation to get up and “just start”, how about developing some sort of progressive schedule like this:
 

Day 1: Put your sneakers on and keep them on for five minutes

Day 2: Take a steady walk for five minutes Day 3: Take a steady walk for six minutes Day 4: Take a steady walk for seven minutes

Keep developing a similar plan until you reach the point where you want to be with this habit (i.e. walk for 20 minutes). By doing this you are building strong new habits.

It is more than adequate to spend five minutes a day on any new habit that you want to develop, for as many days as it takes you to get into your routine. Just five minutes a day will go a long way towards solidifying that habit in a short time if you put in the necessary work.

TIME IN

Think about a habit that you’ve wanted to implement but that you just couldn’t find the time to develop it. Can you “Just Keep Starting”?

Braco Pobric is an Internationally Recognized Positive Psychology Expert and Corporate Trainer. He is the bestselling author of Habits and Happiness: How to Become Happier and Improve Your Wellbeing by Changing Your Habits. Braco is a founding member and Chief Happiness Officer of the Life Success Academy Certified Positive Psychology Master Trainer and former globally Certified Trainer and Business Coach for Dale Carnegie Training. He trained over 60,000 Students in 172 countries.