3 Essential Tools For Building New Habits

In last week’s blog post, 3 Steps to Healthy Goal Setting, we unpack the three steps to identify goals that align with your life and will lead to success.

This work is about identifying who you are – who you truly are – on the inside. This is inner fitness. Read more about What is Inner Fitness and how you need to achieve inner fitness to reach a state of health and well-being.

Once you are on your way with healthy goals that grow through inner fitness practices and awareness, you are ready to build new habits.

Building New Habits

Always remember to be kind with yourself as you embark on learning and change.

Learning and integrating something new is hard.

Focus and perseverance are essential tools to develop a new skill or habit.

Even harder than developing a new habit, is breaking a habit that you already have. Unlearning is more challenging than initial learning.

3 Essential Tools For Building New Habits

1. Identify Your Goal Posts

Your goal posts are the points where you begin and where you want to go.

Notice that I didn’t say “start” and “end”.

The reality is that when working to build habits and achieve goals – you should focus on a continuous cycle of improvement and progress.

Therefore your goals help you set your sights and measurement towards where you are heading, but they are not the limit of your growth.

When you identify goal posts, you can have multiple points of recognition of progress if you choose. The primary focus needs to be on where you are now – where you are beginning, and what your vision holds for your healthy goals.

2. Build Your Resources

Your resources are things like the equipment, time, and people that you need to set up to put action into achieving your goals.

As an example, if you are looking to integrate daily meditation as a goal to help you achieve more balance and calm in your life, you may set up a designated space and time. You may not want to meditate with others, but you may need to utilize your ‘people’ resource by communicating with the people that you live with what you need to have the peace and quiet to focus on your meditation practice.

3. Shift Into a Growth Mindset

A growth mindset focuses on gains and potential.

When you are building new habits, it is best to step into a growth mindset by looking at your habit-building from a place of experimenting versus achieving.

Getting back to the daily meditation example, instead of focusing achievement by working towards meditating every day for a month, shift into looking at your daily meditation as an experiment. 

Get curious, and think – I wonder how many days in a row I can meditate?

This allows you to build up towards success rather than beginning in a perceived deficit and working toward something.

Another growth mindset strategy is to celebrate the journey versus waiting to get to the destination.

When you celebrate each step of the process, you continue to grow your momentum and are ensured more success.

Remember that I am here to support you on this journey of wellness and building new, healthy habits.

If you are a woman, you can join the Weekly Wellness Workshops on Thursdays at 7pm CST over Zoom for a half hour of mindfulness practice and learning. Just email me at robinswellnest@gmail.com to get on that list.

You can also book a Reiki session, or begin with a free consult call to talk about your wellness journey, by scheduling here.

The option is always there to connect with me on Facebook and Instagram as well.

Be well and mindful in all things – especially your habit-building.

With love and light,
Robin