7 Hacks to Make Your Healthy Habits Stick

With the year slowly coming to an end, everyone is either thinking about winding
down or how next year is going to be their year – the year they pull themselves
together and build the life they want.
We’re all familiar with setting New Year’s resolutions that never stick. What’s the trick
to getting it right? This article will break down some ideas to help you actually build
those habits you’ve been trying to form, for real this time, in 2023.
Take Baby Steps
That January feeling can make us feel motivated and impulsive. Of course you can
turn your entire life around in one go. Right?
The unfortunate truth is that trying to change everything at once is probably one of
the biggest reasons you’re failing. You’re making things too difficult for yourself.
Instead of trying to change everything all at once, pick one habit at a time and give it
all your attention for at least a month or two. Once you’ve made it a habit, you can
start looking into adding another.
Remove the Barriers
Make it easy for yourself to perform the habits you’re trying to build. If you want to
exercise first thing in the morning, leave your outfit next to your bed at night. If you’re
trying to drink more water but have to keep purchasing bottles from the store, install
something like an undersink water purifier, so you can have access to clean, fresh
water at all hours of the day.
Similarly, if you’re trying to break a bad habit (like snacking on chocolate) remove the
temptation from your home.
Make a Plan
If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. So, obviously, you need to plan this out. Instead of
just deciding that you’re going to build a meditation habit, make a plan for how you’re
going to do so.
Spend some time online looking for the app (or even a YouTube video) you’d like to
use as a guide. Decide which time of day you’ll do your meditation practice – plan it
at a time when you’re alone and things are quiet. Then, plan where you’ll sit when
you do your meditation.
Apply this same planning logic to all your habits, and you’ll find that they’re a lot
easier to follow through on.
Use a Habit Tracker
We’re all motivated by progress, and that ‘winning’ feeling of checking a box off your
to-do list is like no other.

This is why habit tracking can be a very powerful tool. You can use a free habit
tracking app to keep track of how you’re doing with your habit building, or simply use
a notebook to do it the old-fashioned way. See how many days in a row you manage
to stick to your habit and reward yourself for it.
Find an Accountability Partner
Accountability doesn’t get enough credit for what it can do for our goals. An
accountability partner might be the motivation you need to finally start doing what
you set your mind to.
Make sure you find the right person for the job. If you want to exercise regularly, a
personal trainer can function as an accountability factor. However, if you’re trying to
quit smoking, then asking your partner or close friends to check up on you might be
more useful.
Use the Two-Day Rule
Another tactic that’s growing in popularity is following the Two-Day Rule, which
stipulates to never ever skip your habit two days in a row. This allows you some
flexibility.
If you really need to, for whatever reason, you’re allowed to skip a day. However, no
matter what, you have to make sure to stick to your habit the next day. This prevents
you from ‘falling off the wagon’ and making sure you get right back to it, instead of
missing a day and throwing in the towel for good like you might have done in the
past.
Set a Challenge
We, humans, love a good challenge – our inner competitiveness just can’t resist it. But
you don’t need to compete with anyone but yourself (unless you want to).
Set yourself a challenge for your habits; thirty days is usually a good target. See if
you can dedicate yourself to your habit for one month. Proving to yourself that you
can do it will usually encourage you to carry on even after the challenge is over.
Plus, thirty days is more than enough time for you to feel all the benefits your new
habit is bringing you, which is even more motivating.