Most habits fail because of the lack of consistency.

Why healthy habits are hard to keep?

• People rely on motivation.
• They set unrealistic goals.
• They try to change everything at once.

Start small & build up

To understand this we need to understand that healthy habit isn’t something that is easy to achieve. It takes a lot of time and effort. The bigger the change, the bigger effort is needed.Small wins every day are much better than trying too hard and give up sooner than we build our habit. Start with something small, drink more water, read more or start exercising. There is a big difference between starting something totally new and trying to progress in something you are already doing.

If you want to start going to gym it will be harder to build that new habit than for somebody who is going 2 times a week to go 5 times a week. Startup is the hardest part. Don’t let it discourage you. Some people believe timing plays a huge role in building habits. We can hear often people talking about starting something on monday or first of the month. If you feel like starting something start now. Over time you can progress and go even further. For beginning you need to start even if the timing isn’t perfect.

When you decide to start a habit important part is to make it as easy as possible. If your goal is to eat healthy restrict yourself from fast food and sugars. When you have candy’s on your table all the time it’s going to be harder to resist. You will sometimes be in situations when you will go past fast foods and crave them. But whole point is to avoid them as much as possible so you can build your habit easily. At least you can stop buying unhealthy food in your house.

Focus on consistency. You will see more results from doing something 10 minutes every day than from doing something 2 hours a week. An awesome way to do it is called a 2- day rule. It means you cannot miss two days in a row. If you got off track one day don’t give up. Get back on track the next day and continue.

If you find it useful track your progress in a way that is not going to overwhelm you even more. Simple notebook or calendar to track your progress can be great. If you are doing it on daily basis you will have clear overview about your progress. Some habits are also easily measurable. You are trying to drink more water daily, just write down how much water you drank for a certain day and keep tracking.

Mistakes to avoid

Being too focused on results instead of consistency and progress may ruin your journey. If you want to build a habit you need to understand it’s gonna take time and effort. Enjoy the journey. End goal is just the destination. Fall in love with journey instead of destination and make your life more fullfilling.

“The man who loves walking will walk further than the man who loves the destination.”

― Sal Di Stefano

“The longer you have to wait for something, the more you will appreciate it when it finally arrives. The harder you have to fight for something, the more priceless it will become once you achieve it. And the more pain you have to endure on your journey, the sweeter the arrival at your destination. All good things are worth waiting for and worth fighting for.”

― Susan Gale

Relying only on motivation. Stop chasing motivation to get things done. Discipline is your best friend when it comes to building a new habit. Motivation can be great but sometimes it fades away quickly. Discipline builds character, spirit and help you grow. Disciplined person will outperform motivated one every single time. Don’t chase something that’s temporarily.

Lack of specific goals can ruin habits you build. Instead of “i will exercise more” set yourself a goal like i will go to gym 4 times a week. This way is easier for tracking and staying consistent. Goals needs to be clear and measurable. Writing down and tracking tend to have more success with healthy habits buliding. Time frame can make things worse for some habits. Reason is every human being is different, if some coach tells you he lost over 20 kilos in 6 month you will try to achieve the same thing. Some people need more time and you don’t need to focus on time frames just do it consistently and results will come. Nowadays people often set unrealistic goals that can lead only to dissapoint.

Ignoring your mental health while building habits that improve physical can just make things worse. Focusing only on physical health without addressing your mental well-being can lead to burnout. Balance is key practice self-care and mindfulness to avoid stress. Never focus on just one health segment, find sweet spot between improving one and maintaing others. Small steps leads to great things.