Doing well in school, being accepted to college,
earning scholarships, becoming fit, eating healthy and getting enough sleep all
have something in common. They will happen automatically for those who develop
the right habits. I’ve read it takes 21 days to acquire or change a habit.
Breaking this down into small steps makes doing so fairly easy.
I’ll use healthy eating as an example. The way I tackled this is the way I tackle anything I want to improve in my life. Biting off too
much at once never works. So I take it slow. Several years ago I read an
article about a study on the health benefit of eating nuts. I decided I wanted
those benefits, so I made a plan to increase how many nuts I ate.
That is step one in creating a new habit, begin with
the end in mind (like Stephen Covey recommends). The article ranked a large number
of varieties of nuts by how many nutrients they contained. I started from the
top, and wrote down five I enjoy eating. I didn’t bother writing down the ones
I don’t like, since I know I won’t eat them anyway.
The article mentioned nuts stay fresh longer if
refrigerated. I bought several glass Mason jars, and the five varieties of nuts
I selected. I washed and dried the jars and filled each with one variety of nuts.
I’ve refilled the jars many times since I made the decision to eat more nuts. I
eat them on salads, cereal, and oatmeal and as a snack. Eating nuts is a habit
now.
Let’s look at eliminating a bad habit. Many people are
on their phones instead of chatting with family face to face, reading books, studying
for a test, completing homework, applying for a college scholarship, etc. This
is an easy habit to acquire, and some think it’s difficult to break. I
disagree. Once you’ve made the decision, the rest is just details. Decide when
you want to be on your phone, instead of everything else there is to do in the
world.
Write those times down, take a look and reassess. Is
this the best use of your time? If not, make changes to the schedule. If it is,
then go on the next step. Let’s say you only want to be on your phone for two
hours after coming home after work or school. When you enter the house, take
out your phone and turn it off, not to mute or vibrate, but off. Put the phone
on a table or in a drawer near the front door.
Now do whatever else you want to do. When the time you’ve
allotted for phone use arrives, go to the table, take out your phone and turn
it on. Then set an alarm for two hours. When the alarm sounds, turn the alarm
and your phone off, and replace it where you’re keeping it. After a few days,
this will become a habit. I keep my phone in a bowl on the table in my foyer.
It’s there now, while I’m here, in my office, writing this blog post. It’s just
what I do. It’s a habit.
Getting fit is simple too. This week someone I follow
on Twitter posted a graphic of several ab exercises that won’t hurt your back.
I printed it and will add one of these exercises to my already established
workout routine. After about three weeks it will be a habit, so I’ll add
another from the list. I’ll repeat this process until all the ones I want to do
are part of my routine. Doing them will be habitual.
I look at goals like the old joke about eating an
elephant. How do you eat one, or tackle acquiring good habits? Take one bite or
one step at a time. You can do better in school, be accepted to college, earn
scholarships, become fit, eat healthy and get enough sleep by making the
decision and taking the first step. Repeat until what you need to do to reach
your goal has become a habit.
You are reading from the blog, RoadtoFreeCollege.com, where we empower families with knowledge to navigate the path to higher education without the burden of excessive loans.
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