Why Can’t I Change My Habits?
Photo by Alesia Kozik - from Pexels
“I know what to do, I’m just not doing it.”
If this statement sounds familiar, you’re not alone. Knowing what to do is often easy - between google, meeting with professionals, YouTube, and podcasts you can find a consensus about what habits are health promoting. Now doing those things consistently, that is the difficult step. Many people try to change multiple habits at once, stay consistent for a few weeks, then slowly revert back to old habits.
Change your Mindset to change your habits
If you have tried to make changes and found that you could not sustain them in the past, you may benefit from changing your mindset and approach to change. The tips below can help you get started on your own in changing your health habits for the long term.
Focus on your strengths. What experiences have provided you with strengths you already possess in the area you are wanting to change? It is great to start by thinking about areas of life you are currently successful and what strengths you can draw from those. For example - if you are currently successful at work maybe you are organized, dedicated, you learn from mistakes and failures, and you prioritize what is most important on days everything cannot get done. Pull those same strengths into changing your health behaviors.
Identify your internal motivators. External motivators - things others have told you to do, or things you know you “should” or “need to” start doing can help you get started, but they don’t keep you going. Internal motivators are tied to your personal values and experiences. To help uncover these imagine what would be different about your life and your habits 6 months from now if you were consistent with the changes you are trying to make. How would it feel? Write down these things that matter to you, and revisit them often.
Learn from setbacks. Changing health habits takes time just like growth and change in all areas of life. There will be days and weeks that it is more difficult to stay consistent, and you will make choices that do not support your long term goals. View these as learning experiences. What series of events led to the choice that you made? What would you do differently in the future if faced with this type of situation again? Viewing setbacks as learning experiences rather than failures allows you to grow and prepare to face similar situations in the future so that you can have improved outcomes each time you experience that situation.
Utilize support. It is incredibly difficult to change health behaviors long term. Utilize a health coach (or other health professionals) to support you in making these changes. Health coaches will have you share your experience and will ask you questions to provoke deeper thought and reflection. They will help you learn from setbacks and identify what strengths will help you to continue to make meaningful changes.
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