Healthy Lifestyle: A Guide to Develop Self-Discipline & Build New Habits

You know what, you won't even believe me but fact is, I lose 10 kg by pure consistency. I am not an expert on self-improvement. I wrote this article based on my collective insights that I gain from reading, listening, watching habit-related sources, and my personal experiences on implementing the knowledge.

Many people asked me, what is the secret to lose weight and how to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to be fully committed and successful with it? As I am trying to broaden my understanding to find out the secrets, I also try to figure out what my body and mind really need. Losing weight and maintaining a healthy lifestyle is more than just a single food choice.

The secrets, or I prefer to call it “facts”, are developing new habits and adjusting myself to them. These are the two things that have largely contributed to my transformation. After some thorough study on habit, I came up with six tips or techniques to develop new habits and to effectively and consistently maintain them. Although I have acquired various information on the topic, I will highlight six aspects that have resonated with me the most. So, let’s get into it!

First of all, what is a habit?

I think we are familiar with the word “habit” but, do we ever question it? Sometimes, when we are familiar enough with a word, we tend to take it for granted.

Habit is a clever trick of the brain that helps us to save energy and to automate tasks. It works on the unconscious mind and tends to go unnoticed. Habits make us look left and right before crossing, brushing our teeth before going to bed, and locking the door before leaving the house. Although it seems trivial, when a habit is strongly entrenched, it lets us live a large part of our life on autopilot and frees us up for mental energy.

During his session on TED on The Science of Habits, Marco Badwal explained that our brain will considerably perceive something as high importance if we keep repeating them. So, if you want to make something easier, change them into a habit. By converting good intention into good habits, you will unveil its power.

Of course, we will struggle in adjusting to new habits. The obstacles seem to be endless and it would be difficult to maintain them.

1. Identity

When we are wishing for significant changes in our life, we have to understand WHY we want it. We have to figure out why we want to change and we also have to know our goals. Every goal is good as long as it has a good intention. However, I often find that people who wish for a healthy life are limited only to number and tempo. For example:

We set time limits in achieving our goal. “I want to lose 10kg within 3 months!”, “I will exercise twice a day for a month to lose weight!”, “I am going to eat healthily by the end of this year!”, and so on.

What I found is that when we are focusing on the outcome, we would usually be rewarded with short-term satisfaction and a feeling of temporary achievement. As a consequence, once our goal is fulfilled, we are reverting to our old habits, which make new habits hard to maintain. Therefore, instead of focusing on temporary achievement and the outcomes, why don’t we focus more on the identity that we want? For example:

Instead of saying “I am going to eat healthily by the end of this year!”, we should try saying “I want to be a physically and mentally healthy person!” or “I want to be a good reader/runner/listener!” After you come up with your “desired identity”, you need to start asking questions on “what and how” such as:

“What would a physically and mentally person do? How to be physically and mentally healthy?” “What would a good reader do?” We can find the answers by reading articles, watching TED talks, listening to podcast, or we can predict some of the common answers ourselves. If we want to be a physically and mentally healthy person, we will probably have to do these activities:

a. Rest well

b. Eat healthily (eating more vegetables and fruits

c. Exercise regularly

d. Understand self-care and self-love

After we figure out our “desired identity” and the key factors to achieve it, we will learn the second technique, which is “TIME”.

2. Time (Make Time for it)

Be patient and stick to it! Most of the time, we are so obsessed with being busy. Meanwhile, what we actually need is to become productive. Ask yourself, how important is it to develop and maintain new habits? How significant is it for our life? If you think this new habit is very important, you will make time for and prioritize it. If you have set your goal or desired identity, you will commit to making time for developing your new habits.

The third technique will help to develop our new habits even easier. The third technique is to be Specific.

3. Be Specific

We have to be more specific with our new habits. This technique challenges us to know “when”, “where”, and “how often” those new habits are completed. We can write it down or combine new habits with our existing habits. By doing this, we can easily track our new habits.

For example:

Goal: I want to be a physically and mentally healthy person.

New habit: I want to do a home-workout at 05.30 a.m.

Existing habit: I do daily chores at 06:00 a.m.

By employing the “specific” technique, our new habit will be:

To be a physically and mentally healthy person, “I will do home-workout at 05. 30 a.m. every morning before doing my daily chores at 06:00 a.m.”

4. Happy mindset

To properly implement the new habits, we have to make it as pleasurable as possible. At the end of the day, it is our mindset that decides whether we are going to enjoy something or not.

A powerful method to develop a happy mindset is by using positive language for our internal dialogue. For example:

a. The new habit that I want to develop and maintain is, “I want to prepare and cook my own healthy meal at home for breakfast, lunch, and dinner!”

Instead of saying, “I must cook my own meal”, change “must” to “get to”. So, I would say, “I get to cook my own meal, I get to eat more fruits and veggies, I get to exercise more.” It may simple, but it influences how I perceive something I want to do and it works. It frees me from the obligation that the word “must” carries.

b. We can also practice a happy mindset by comparing the pros and cons of our new habit. In my case, “I want to prepare and cook my own healthy meal at home for breakfast, lunch, and dinner”

The pros that I found by cooking my own meal at home are:

a. It is more affordable than store-bought food

b. It is healthier because I can make sure that the food is using less oil, less sugar, much cleaner, fresh, and has more veggies and fruits

c. I can learn a new skill, which is cooking

The only cons that I found are:

a. Time consuming, although I can still manage it as long as I have the will to try

In conclusion, we only have to see the benefits that we could gain from doing new habits. Instead of taking it as an obligation or burden, we should consider doing new habits as a way of learning new things.

5. Preventing Obstacles

Obstacles are unavoidable and we have to face them while adjusting to the new habit, although the new habit itself is an obstacle. Here, I want to discuss the next technique that emphasizes how to prevent external obstacles that could hinder our development of new habits. The key is, “try to make it simple, short, and sweet!”.

a. Do It Simple

When we are excited about things, sometimes, we feel energized as if we can do anything at once. Consequently, when we eagerly implement the new habit for the first time, we tend to overwhelm it. For example:

When we try to exercise regularly, pick a comfortable workout routine that suits you, and know your limit. I am not a fan of jumping exercise; hence, I do cardio, yoga, or HIIT with no jumping for 15 to 30 minutes daily.

b. Be Prepared

We might be hindered from developing new habits by a seemingly trivial matter. It could be like forgetting a yoga mat or putting on running shoes. These little things have to be avoided. The solution is by preparing our necessities beforehand. For example:

When the new habit is “I want to do home-workout at 05:30 a.m. every day”

On the night before, we can put a yoga mat in a place that can be easily reached. We also should prepare our workout outfit and a bottle of water to keep us hydrated. By preparing our needs, we will not find excuses to skip the new habit.

c. Be Patient

Relish the experience, enjoy the journey, and believe in progress. Great thing takes time, it is progressing. Do it at your pace. Usually, when the plan works for the first time, we get carried away and rush it. It may be exercising for two hours a day or starving yourself for a diet that, at the end of the day, make you feel uncomfortable and force you to give up. To avoid it, we have to enhance our capacity and be stronger each day by consistency and commitment.

6. Rewards

New habit rewards later. Appreciating yourself after completing your new habits is something I undoubtedly encourage. Personally, I always reward myself with a bottle of fresh smoothies, listening to a good song at the end of my workout session, or enjoying a wholesome breakfast. Do something simple that makes you happy.

We can also be thoughtful about what we have achieved. Think about the positive impact of new habits and be grateful for them. From what I have experienced, implementing new habits have tremendously helped me in three important aspects of my life:

a. Mental (self-proven capability, happy mindset)

b. Physically (reduce the pain in the body, healthier self)

c. Personal Management (Become more organized, time management improvement, self-understanding)

Thank you for reading thus far. Hopefully, you can feel enlightened and inspired after reading this, and I hope it can be helpful. If you also have any experiences on adjusting and maintaining new habits, I will be more than excited to hear it. Don't hesitate to drop any messages, so we can discuss further about it!