How to start a new habit and Keep it forever.

How to start a new habit and keep it forever.

bism Allah alrahman alraheem

I've once read that we aren't  the things that we do once in while but we are the things that we do continuously, our habits shape our lives and eventually make us who we are.


Sometimes it's really hard to start a good habit, you keep forgetting sometimes, you feel lazy or you think it's gonna take a lot of time, so what we all do is that we just stop keeping up with a certain habit and just forget about it until we realise again that we need to have this habit.

And it becomes even harder if you're a person with a bad memory and easily distracted like me, believe it or not sometimes I find a good habit and decide that I must get into doing it because it's gonna solve a lot of problems and what happens the next day is that I forget about it!
Just like this, I get distracted and forget things and I find myself again in the same position with no improvement 😣
So I decided to learn more about this and I've really found some great advice which helped me to keep up with some really good habits, and here you're 7 of the most useful tips to help you become the person you've always wanted to be.


1- Start small.
  or very very small even, this is almost my number one advice because I always tend to set very big goals for myself from the beginning and then feel overwhelmed and then depressed if I couldn't achieve them, so for example if you wanna get into the habit of writing everyday don't set a goal of writing four or five pages everyday but start writing half a page may be or write three times a week for the beginning and then add to it every week. And you'll be there in no time.


2- consistency is key
  I know that a habit is called a habit because it's constantly happening, but what I want to say is that even if you're tired or don't feel like doing that thing you want it to become a habit of yours, just push yourself harder to do it or even a part of it or anything that looks like it or that is even related to it somehow but don't just not do it because it will become more harder to start all over again. and for the perfectionists out there, I feel you but remember that Done is always better that Perfect.


3- Associate it with a habit that you can't   stop.
 I've always found this tip very easy because as a Muslim I can associate my habits with one of the five prayers, but why do this from the beginning?
Simply, when you associate your new habit with one of the habits (or as in my case with the prayers) it will be less likely for you to forget them because you'll be reminded of them when you do that thing that you've associated them with, but be careful not to associate new habits with each other because you might forget both or become more lazy.
😂😂😂

4- Find the best conditions
For example, if you want to get into the habit of doing a workout or exercising everyday, don't decide to start by working out everyday at 4:00 am, because it's probably gonna be cold or may be the sun didn't rise yet and you're sleepy (if this is not the time that you usually wake up at)
All those feelings will resist your desire to work out at this time, but if you chose a time that you're usually feeling active and you're already awake, it will just be much easier to do it.


5- Don't set unrealistic goals as your habits.
Know yourself, your abilities and your priorities. And decide how much time you want this habit to take you. Our prophet PPBUH said"خير الأعمال أدومها و إن قلت"
Which means " the best of the acts is the most consistent , no matter how little it is" so you must ask yourself how much can I do and keep doing everyday, for example don't decide to read 300 pages or run for 5 hours everyday unless it was your job to do that of course 😅😂


6- Ask a friend or a family member to remind you if you forgot, or put sticky notes where you can see them.
I haven't asked anyone to remind me before but I think it's a good idea, I usually use sticky notes to remind myself.


7- Don't become miserable if you fail.
It's all about not giving up, try again and again and again, find what works best for you, change the times, the conditions or the amount of work and try again, never give up on yourself and you'll eventually make it.

Now tell me how do you keep having your good habits and what is your number one advice to get in the habit of doing something new ?