Habits and Routines.
Habits and Routines
When it comes to making a change, we often think of the word Habit or the word Routine, did you know it takes 7 to 365 days to make a habit, the average is 66 days. Studies have shown that it takes 59-66 of those days to make a habit automatic, or a routine. The likelihood of you making those habits stick is, in part, routines.
The definition of Habit is a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. Whereas the definition of Routine is a sequence of actions regularly followed, a fixed program.
It is something you want to do or something you need to do. You may be great at getting up for work at 4am but struggle to get up 5 minutes before the kids on your days off. But every time, you hit the snooze button. “It’s my only day off!” you may say, or “I deserve this extra 5 minutes of sleep!” I know. It takes time to make a choice and execute that choice in a consistent fashion, it doesn’t happen overnight. And it cannot happen overnight while being sustainable to your overall life and wellness.
What is a routine that you have? Is it something you do every day or something that is a sometimes thing, like your days off or a holiday.
My morning routine is like what I mentioned above, I get up at 4am four days a week. I do a five-minute meditation and I drink a nice glass of at least 12oz of lemon water before my coffee. Then I leave my house by 4:40am to catch a bus. My routine isn’t glamourous, and it didn’t start like this. A year ago, I was getting up at 4:30am to leave by 4:40am and getting my coffee before my eyes were open. Don’t even get me started about that coffee habit (which is also doing much better) these were things I had to make a conscious choice to do, set my alarm and actually getting up without hitting snooze. I started by slowly setting my alarm 5 minutes earlier than I was and gradually increasing that time until I got here to my current state. I have an ideal daily routine that I’m working on that doesn’t involve getting up at 4am but that’s something that has already been started, and I will report back when I accomplish that goal.
What is a habit that you have? Habits can be positive and negative. A negative habit can be smoking or heavy drinking or even processed fast food addiction. Habits can also be good like daily walks, drinking 32oz of water, drinking water at all (hey we have all been there), healthy diets and so much more. Theoretically, if the sun starts to wake you up at 6am because that’s the time it comes through the blinds than technically by the end of the summer you have a new habit of getting up with the sun.
For me, I started waking up 10 minutes before I had to leave my house, but I wanted to be able to meditate when I woke up before leaving for work. It took a long time to do it, because I wanted every moment of sleep I could get before my busy day. But thanks to my coach, I can say that I now wake up 40 minutes before I must leave. It took me about 3 months of consistently doing this before it started to be missed on a morning I was running behind. 3 months, that sounds a lot like 7-66 days to me.
Some things my coach asked me that helped me make this change are things I want to ask you. First, think of your ideal routine or a habit you’ve been wanting to do.
Next think of your motivation for starting this new routine or habit?
Third, where do you see yourself with this routine or habit in a year?
And last. What is Stopping You?
