Healthy habits are the intentional act of choosing to do things you feel good about. Perhaps you’re choosing to do something now instead of procrastinate. Perhaps you’re choosing a practice that’s new and different. Healthy habits are often started as a way to break old bad habits.
We’re back to that image of the wheel in the trench. You can dig a new trench for the wheel, but the hard part is pulling that wheel from the old rut into the new. It takes tremendous effort to position that wheel in the new spot. How can the wheel move when the new trench isn’t as wide or deep as the old one? Perhaps our new habit is merely a gentle dip in the ground, barely begun.
As you can see, healthy habit-forming involves two separate endeavors. You have to start a new healthy habit at the same time that you break an old, unhealthy one.
Keep in mind that it will take some time for this new habit to become established into your routine. However, the process of breaking a bad habit is so much quicker and easier if the focus is on your intention - an exciting new habit – not just on breaking that old bad habit.
Give yourself time and space to practice. Allow for mistakes, and forgetting. This is all an expected part of your transition. It’s normal to feel tension in the process of creating a new routine. Each and every time you act on your new habit, it grows stronger.
You can do it. Don’t give up!
