Implementing Habits

All of self-help is about habits. People stuck in a rut usually have bad habits. People who improve in different areas of their lives have good habits.

When you start a diet, you should be building a habit of eating healthy and in proper amounts instead of trying to lose xxx pounds. When you practice ideas from a book like Think and Grow Rich, you should be building a habit of creating prosperity, instead of trying to make xxx amount of money.

If you don’t build a habit, any result will not be sustainable. Any gain will not be lasting.

So before you undertake any program or technique, ask yourself first, do I want to make this a habit? And if yes you do, ask the follow-up question: is this a useful habit to develop?

For instance, I once went from 176 to my ideal weight of 140 lbs in less than two months. How did I do it? I walked 2 hours a day. As briskly as I can. When I got off from work at 6am (I did the night-shift at the time), I’d take the 2-hour walk to my house. If I was feeling especially spritely, I will take the small roads leading into circles to extend the trip to 3 hours. I didn’t really enjoy the walk, in fact I often trudged through it. I just wanted to be thin.

It was the most effective weight-loss program I’ve ever seen. I lost 15 pounds the first week alone. But was it sustainable? Did I build a good habit that kept the weight off?

When I hit 14o lbs, the three hours began to look like a waste of time. Surely, I can use that time to do my fanzine. Or have sex with my girlfriend. Or have fun with friends. There was nothing wrong with walking to lose weight, in fact I think it’s very healthy, but I did not work on building a habit that I can truly integrate into my life.

Contrast this to my friend who, in order to lose weight, started a 3-day a week, 45-minute session at the gym near his house. A few weeks later, he started doing bodyweight exercises at home, right before he went to bed for 10 minutes. A few months down the line, he integrated a sustainable 5 small meals a day diet. The gains would be slower, yes, but instead of getting results by doing a technique, he built a habit that down the line will build solid, sustainable results.

So if you’re undertaking any form of self-development, remember that it is not about techniques or end goals. It’s about creating and implementing habits that will lead to the end goals. So that even when the end goal is not achieved, the habit is in place and will benefit you in more ways than you can imagine.