HOW can I keep and maintain my new positive habits?
Often it can be a lot easier to start new habits, than it can be to maintain them and keep them going and developing over time. On this page we’ll explore:- how habits are related to identity, the neuroscience behind habits, and a useful tool for habit tracking, so that you’ll be better equipped to maintain and fully embed your positive habits into your life in a sustainable way.
THE LINK BETWEEN HABIT FORMING AND IDENTITY
When you have identified your goals and your vision for where you want to be, habits can impact how you achieve these goals and support you to develop new behaviours. Here’s a useful tool for checking-in and reviewing your goals.
Habits are intrinsically linked to identity change. When you have identified your goals of where you want to be, a good question to ask yourself is…
“Who do I need to BE in order to achieve these goals?”
The more you adopt this identity, and believe in it, the more likely you are to maintain the habits that create this identity, and lead you to your goals.
For example if your goal is that you want to be physically more fit. You will need to see yourself as someone who exercises regularly. If you see yourself as someone who exercises regularly, you are more likely to succeed.
Here’s a practical example related to this:
You’ve booked a gym class in the morning, but you’re feeling really tired and thinking of cancelling. You can ask yourself: I am someone who exercises regularly. So what would someone who exercises regularly do in this situation?
They might go to bed an hour earlier to catch up on some sleep, they might get their gym bag ready and packed the night before to make it easier in the morning. They might find a way to reward themselves after they’ve been to the gym class.
The more you do the positive action that reinforces this identity, the more you believe it and the more it becomes a reality.
REFLECTION Questions:
What are your goals and aspirations?
Who do you need to BE in order to accomplish this?
What do you need to believe about yourself?
These beliefs build a really strong foundation for the behaviour change you want to create, made possible through Neuroplasticity…
One of the benefits of creating helpful and positive habits is that they help you to reduce or replace unhelpful habits. The more you repeat a behaviour, the more you strengthen the neural pathway. Over time if you only use this pathway, the old pathway or way of thinking weakens and eventually dies out. Our brains are capable of this through Neuroplasticity, the ability we have for our brains and thought patterns to change. This means that habits help you to reach your goals and support the identity you want to create.
One way we can support our new helpful habits, is through habit tracking.
The idea behind habit tracking, is that ignorer for something to become habitual, to the extent where you do something without even thinking about it, and it becomes second nature, you need to do it over and over again.
Through consistent repetition, your brain develops a muscle memory for it, making it automatic. Keeping a track of your habits allows you to see the reality of your actions and progress.
The Neuroscience around habit forming
How can I track my habits effectively, to lead me to sustainable behaviour change?
A VISUAL CUE
Having a habit tracker written down and somewhere prominent in your home, means that it creates a visual reminder for you to act. We know that if we have cues and reminders, these can prompt us to behave in a certain way. So I’ll invite you to think of a place that you will see regularly to put your tracker, not for example, hidden in a file on your phone or laptop.
It is also motivating to see the progress you are making, and the celebrate this progress as you go along - not just reaching the huge milestones, but also celebrating the small steps along the way.
THE POWER OF CELEBRATING
When you recognise your achievements along the way and celebrate, it helps you to release dopamine, which reinforces the neural pathway you are creating and means you are more likely to repeat the behaviour.
Here is an effective simple tool to help you recognise, reward and celebrate yourself for your achievements.
IT TAKES TIME
As we mentioned earlier, the more we use a neural pathway, the more it becomes embedded. So when it comes to embedding new habits, they need to be developed in a part of the brain called the basal ganglia, which take both time, and repetition, as well as motivation.
Therefore be aware that your habits won’t embed quickly, it can take a long time, and we have to be consistent and patient with ourselves along the way. This is where a tracker can really help us see the growth we are making along the way.
WAYS TO TRACK
You can write down the habit that you want to achieve, and do a tally (or sticker/ gold star) for every time you do this. At the end of each week and each month you can reflect on:
What went well?
What helped you achieve these actions?
What was unhelpful?
Did anything not work?
What will you do differently next time?
You could also use this quick review tool at the end of each month to think about what you’ll stop, start, continue and begin doing to support your habits.
An alternative is to have a jar, and for each time you complete an action for your new habit, you can put something in the jar, I.e. a pebble, or a button. Here’s you’ll be able to see the pebbles slowly build up, and you’ll have a beautiful visual cue to see growth.
DIVING DEEPER
If you want to dive deeper into this subject matter, and for lots of practical tips and strategies to support habit building, I would recommend these two books:
Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg
Atomic Habits, James Clear