by Venchito Tampon | Last Updated on November 22, 2020

You achieve your goals by starting and sustaining healthy habits. 

In this blog post, we’re going to talk about “how to start a habit”, even if you thought to yourself, “it’s too difficult to start a habit.., even if you’re no an athlete, or simply as “you’re too busy..”

“You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems.”

-James Clear.

You and I have goals. You may not be aware of it, but you know to yourself, you want to achieve great things in life. It may not be written down as it should be, but you’re looking forward that someday you’re gonna achieve it.

[bctt tweet=”You cannot achieve goals by staring at your list. You need to have a system.” username=”venchito14″]

If you want to drive a car, there is a system to follow. If you’re looking to start a business, there is a registration process you have to follow. Almost anything in life has systems. 

The same is true with you, as a human being. You need to have a system. That system is called your habits. 

So let’s dive into four things on how you can start a habit. These are tips from the book, “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, which I believe is one of the best books on habit formation. 

Make your habits obvious

First is to make your habits, obvious.

Make it obvious. To make a habit obvious means that your senses should quickly identify the habit. This is what we call exposure. 

For instance, you wanna start reading books. You are not a reader. But you want to become one.

So to make the habit of book reading, you can place a book on one area where you can see it after you wake up, or after working — either on a desk, beside your bed.. Wherever it is, the idea is to make it easy for you to see the book.

Another thing is to allow your environment to push you to start a habit. Your influence, your place of work at home are some examples of an environment you can change if you want to make a habit obvious. 

Making it obvious leaves you no room for excuses. Once you see it, feel it, or even taste it, you overcome the challenges of starting the habit that you want. You may want to check out my first episode on overcoming the challenges of starting anything.

So let’s proceed to the second tip to make your habits work.

Make your habits attractive

Second is to make it attractive. This is where the craving part comes in. The desire to start a habit. 

For every habit that you want to start, ask the question, “what are the benefits of starting it in the first place?”

By knowing how it benefits you, you start to crave the habit. So whether it learning a new skill, joining a group or developing more connections with people, there are benefits and desires attached to a habit. 

By knowing these things, you get to add flavor to your habits from time to time. Yes, habit is boring. But you can make it fun to start with if you make a habit attractive. 

Make your habits easy

Next is to make your habit easy.

Often times, people have this idea that a habit is too difficult. 

Which is true, especially if a habit is a great challenge to start in the first place. 

What you can do now is to make it easy. If you’ve got a big project, break it down to small tasks, even to smaller tasks.

[bctt tweet=”The easier it is for you to jump into the boat, the faster you can start the ride.” username=”venchito14″]

I say it again, The easier it is for you to jump into the boat, the faster you can start the ride.

Want to start reading a book? Don’t read 5 chapters if you’re an absolute beginner. Start with one chapter. Start with one page. Want to become a writer? Don’t start with a 5000-word ebook. Start writing 100 words a day. Want to build a habit of exercise? Don’t push yourself to 500 push-ups. Start with 10 then 20, then 30. 

You don’t have to be an athlete to start a habit. You can start now. Remove any excuses that you’re too busy. Start an easy habit. 

Make your habits satisfying

Lastly, you want to make your habit satisfying.

A habit must have a reward. What is the reward for you doing your habit today?

If it’s reading a book, the reward is gaining more knowledge and adding more value to people through informative conversations.

If it’s conducting weekly meetings with your team, the reward is developing deeper relationships with each of your team members. They gain more inspiration from each one of you and get things done as a team.

What makes your habit satisfying?

Here you go, we’ve covered four tips on how to start a habit.

  1. Obvious
  2. Attractive
  3. Easy
  4. Satisfying