How to Build a Habit: 7 Tips for Building Good Habits

Habits are consistent, repeated behaviors. Good habits contribute to your personal development, helping you achieve goals and live a healthy lifestyle. Bad habits are detrimental to your physical, emotional, and mental health—they impede personal development and can interfere with your relationships. Habits aren’t always consciously formed—they can develop when you are operating on autopilot. For example, you might want a glass of wine after a particularly stressful day. At first, it’s just the stressful days that make you crave a glass of wine, but after a while, you have a glass of wine every time you get home from work, even on good days. You’ve formed a new habit without even realizing it.

The primary difference between a daily routine and a habit is intention. Habits happen on autopilot, but routines happen with deliberate practice. For example, your morning routine might involve waking up to an alarm, brushing your teeth, washing your face, combing your hair, and drinking a cup of coffee before going to work. These behaviors might become habits after a while, but they are only the result of intentional actions. Habit formation, on the other hand, often happens without conscious thought. Hitting snooze on your morning alarm every morning is an example of a habit you may develop without thinking about it consciously.

Good habits, or healthy habits, are repeated behaviors that aid your personal development. They are implicit behaviors that improve your physical, emotional and mental health. Here are some examples of good habits:

• Flossing your teeth at least once a day.
• Getting at least eight hours of sleep every night.
• Doing ten to fifteen push-ups a day.
• Telling your loved ones that you appreciate them.
• Eating fruits and vegetables every day.
• Staying on top of grooming and bathing.
• Drinking plenty of water throughout the day.
• Practicing meditation or breathing exercises.

Learning how to form new habits and eliminate bad ones can help you control your impulses and begin to build a healthier lifestyle. Consider these tips for building good habits:

1. 1. Write down your goals. Start by writing down the negative habits you hope to eliminate and the positive habits you wish to build. If it’s helpful, use post-it notes to place reminders of your goals in the place where you hope to form a new habit, such as on your bathroom mirror, refrigerator, or office desk.
2. 2. Avoid triggers. The key to stopping bad habits is to eliminate the activities, people, and places that trigger the habit in the first place. For example, if you tend to overspend when you shop at a particular grocery store, choose to shop at a less tempting store.
3. 3. Identify the root cause of your habits. Habits develop from your response to cravings. Triggers often cause cravings. Triggers are your brain’s mechanism for seeking rewards. Identifying the type of reward you’re seeking can help you make wiser decisions and nip bad habits in the bud. For example, you might turn to fried foods to cope with a stressful day, even though a healthier option would make you feel better. Identifying what your body or mind is seeking can help you have more self-control and make decisions that will develop positive habits.
4. 4. Focus on making small changes. Changing an existing habit or building a new one can be overwhelming. An effective method for making big changes to your daily habit is by starting with simple steps. Focus on consistently practicing tiny habits. For example, if you want to start exercising more, start by going for a five-minute walk every day.
5. 5. Establish a daily routine. Consistency is one of the most powerful tools for changing your behavior. Once you’ve identified healthy habits that you hope to incorporate into your life, pick a time of day to do them, and stick to it.
6. 6. Measure your progress. When working on developing new behaviors, it’s important to track your progress. You can do this by keeping a journal or using a habit-tracking app. Measuring your progress helps you celebrate small wins and keeps you motivated.
7. 7. Find an accountability partner. A support network can increase your odds of building a sustainable habit change. Ask a close friend, family member, coach, or mentor to hold you accountable for the behavior change you hope to make.

Figuring out what you want to do next and how to get there? Learn how to embrace your passions with a MasterClass Annual Membership and find the grit to take control of your life with exclusive access to video lessons taught by the world’s best, including Robin Arzón, Elaine Welteroth, Hillary Rodham Clinton, RuPaul, and more.