How to Form Good Habits
daily goals goals habits health healthy immersion leadership lifestyle rewards
How do you adopt a good habit?
Start by choosing the habit that you feel will help either decrease your stress or improve your lifestyle the most. Then start reprogramming and brainwashing yourself by feeding yourself good information about that subject. Adding a good habit is really a mind-game until it becomes entrenched into your daily routine.
It’s all about the habit and not about the activity. The key is to start with your thoughts. It may sound strange but you want to brainwash yourself by immersing yourself with inputs about the good habit that you want to form . Actively focus on it. You want to provide yourself with consistent motivation and then slowly form the habit so that it becomes ingrained into the daily fabric of your life.
Most people join a gym, buy the best gym gear, go for a week, and never go again, meanwhile
paying the membership fee with hopes of going back. To avoid this, you need more than just a financial outlay. You need books, podcasts, and motivational media. You want to find friends who also want or already have these good habits. This support will help you overcome bad days when you're not feeling motivated. On bad days, you still want to exercise, just go easy on yourself.
Follow this approach to form any good habit. Pick one habit and immerse yourself. Even if you fail by not doing the habit on a certain day, don’t fail to listen, read, or watch something about the subject. These inputs will reprogram your brain and get you back on track again.
When you are working on forming a good habit, try to develop a reward system. For example if you meditate for a week straight, then go buy yourself some comfy socks or slippers. Or if you stick to your financial budget for a week, treat yourself to a date night – but budget for it of course.
Habits are just daily goals. So, make sure you set realistic goals for yourself. Try to make your daily goals so ridiculously small in the beginning that you just can’t fail. Then as you develop your routine just add a little more stretch to the goal each week. Remember, you’re in this for the long run.
If you have a lapse - no biggie - it’s okay and extremely normal. Practice self-forgiveness. But keep feeding your brain good inputs by continued immersion and then get back on track. If you need to, start back at the beginning with a very small goal. Recognize that personal change is difficult so go easy on yourself, forgive yourself, but whatever you do, don’t give up on yourself.
I really hope you can form great habits one-at-a-time and that it will improve your work life and your personal life. Remember that a healthy lifestyle means lower stress too. However, if you’re really feeling overwhelmed, please get help from a mental health professional.
If you are a leader then honing your leadership skills improves your effectiveness and reduces stress. Learn how at Tools for the Trenches.
Stay connected with news and updates!
If you want some weekly T4T wisdom coming straight to your inbox for your reading pleasure - look no further! Join our mailing list to receive the latest blogs and updates.
Don't worry, your information will not be shared.
We hate SPAM. We will never sell your information, for any reason.
CATEGORIES
All Categories 5s 5s standardize 5s sustain 6m's accomplishment accountability accuracy action action plans actions ada addiction addiction help adverserial affordable agenda alcohol alcoholism amazon american disabilities act anderson-darling approachability art artisan assembly assembly line assessment assignments attention to details attribute gage r&r auto industry auto manufacturing auto production automobile manufacturing average avoidance best practices big bend black belt boss boulder city bourbon trail business business case business model business proposals candidate experience candidates capability study capital career cargo cash flow cell design cememt central limit theorem central tendancy ceo certification certification training challenges change change management changeover reduction chaos child labor ci cnc cnc programming cogs communication communitiy company compassion compitition concrete conducting interviews conflict conflict management consistency construction consumption continuous improvement corrective action correlation analysis cost savings costs course cp cp and cpk cpk cross-functional cross-training cross-training matrix crude culture current state current state map customer customer satisfaction customer service customer value customers cv daily goals dallas dam data data collection data transformation debt-free decision maker defects demand department design design of experiment design review design reviews develop development dfm diet direct labor diversity documentation doe drilling driving results drug use duluth dumping e learn e-learning eap ebit education effective effectiveness effectivity effects of change efficiency email empathy empirical rule employee employee assistance program employee development employee engagement employee recgonition employees encouragement enforcement engagement engineer engineering equipment exercise expectations expertise experts facilitate facilitator factories factory family life feedback financial fishing fixed mindset flexibility flexible follow-up ford forecast fossil fuels fred jones freightliners friendships frontline leaders fun gage r&r gasoline gemba general motors goals gold rush good conflict great lakes great teams gross margins gross profits growth growth mindset habits health healthy henry ford heritage hiring histogram history hoover dam housekeeping how to be a great teammate how to thrill customer human relations human resources hydro-electric hydro-electric power hypothesis testing ice breaker illinios river valley illinois illinois river immersion improve improvement industrial industrial engineering industrial heritage industrial heritgage industrial history industry industry 4.0 inequity injury prevention innovation inspection instructions integrity internal promotion interview questions interview skills interview tips interviewing inventory investment irresponsible jack daniels distillery tour job diversity job shop job shops jobs kaizen kanban kappa kentucky knowledge lead leader leaders leadership leadership development leading lean lean champion lean culture lean implementation lean journey lean kickoff lean launch lean manufacturing lean pilot project lean six sigma lean strategy lean tools lean vision learn learning lifestyle logging logistics low prices lumber machine guarding machine speed machines maintenance making a pitch management management by walking around manager managers managing managing conflict managing the floor manpower manufacturing manufacturing leaders manufacturing leadership manufacturing plants manufacturing results manufacturing supervisor manufacturing supervisor leadership marfa material mbwa mean measurement meditation meeting meetings mental health methods metrics midland milk run mindset minnesota model-t mother nature muda multivariant analysis national park nature new products night shift nimble business normal distribution normality test office oil ojt okc oklahoma on line courses on-site factories on-time delivery onboarding one-on-one online open-door operational excellence operators opex ore organization otd output overhead ownership p-value packaging packaging material partner partnering partnership partnerships pdca pdca cycle peers performance performance management performance patterns performance review perimian basis personal accountability personal growth personal grwoth personality petroleum pikes place pitch plan planner planning plant plant costs plastics point of use poka-yoke policy portland cement positive feedback pou power plant pp ppk praise presentation presentation anxiety presentations prices prime costs principles printing private label problem solving problems procedure procedures process process capability process center process controls process engineer process management process variation product development product testing production production flow production supervisor productive conflict productivity products professionalism profit profits profressional development progress project project management projections projects promoted props provide qualifies quality quality control quality tool quick changeover r&d range rapid changeover recognition recognize recruiting recycling red tag referals refinery reliability reputation resolving conflict respect responsibility responsible results resume resume screening resumes revenue rewards rigs roi rolling-5 rolling-5 action plans roots routine safety safety incentives sales sales tips sampling science screening screening applicants seattle self-promotion selling service set in order set-in-order set-up reduction shadow board shareholder shine shipping shopfloor single minute of exchange of die single-piece six-sigma skills sleep slideshow sme smed social life sort specifications specs speed to market staffing staffing model standard cost standard deviation standardize starved rock state-of-the-art statistics steel steel fabrication steel industry stress stress management strong leader success supervision supervisor supervisor development supervisor leadership supervisors supervsior supplier supply chain sustain systems t-test tactical takt teaching team team work team-based teammate teams teamwork technical tennesse whiskey tennessee texas the great depression the hoover dam the normal distribution curve timber time management time-series tools tourism toyota production system tpm tps training training methods travel troubleshooting trust turn around two sample t-test types of change understanding vacation validation value value stream value stream map value-driven values variance variances variation velocity vendor managed inventory video violations visual factory vmi voc volunteering vsm war on waste washington waste waste reduction waterway wellbeing work instructions work rules workforce workplace workplace conflict