How To Build Healthy and Sustainable Habits That Actually Serve You
We’ve all heard the famous quote…
“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” (Aristotle)
The small habits we choose to maintain each day turn us into the person we want to become.
They are essential for overall health and wellness and are the gateway to a healthier and more fulfilling life.
So why do many of us still fail to build healthy habits?
The truth is — it comes down to the way we approach our habits.
Here’s everything you need to know about building sustainable habits that aren’t only healthy but also serve you, your wants and your needs.
Table of Contents
- Success is the product of daily habits
- What is a habit?
- The benefits of building healthy habits
- How to break unhealthy habits
- 5 ways to build healthy and sustainable habits that actually serve you
- 1 | Establish what habits you want to build
- 2 | Create clear and tangible actions
- 3 | Make your habits fun
- 4 | Start small and stay consistent
- 5 | Use a habit tracker to visually see progress
- Final thoughts
Success is the product of daily habits
As James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits puts it, “Success is the product of daily habits.”
If you truly want to live a “successful” life (placed in quotation marks here as success is subjective and its definition is up to you) then you need to put in the time and effort daily to build healthier habits that support your overall wellness.
And if you need help building better habits (outside of this blog post) then James Clear is your guy. Atomic Habits shows us that habit-building can be easy and fun. It’s not as boring or arduous as you might think.
Honestly, this book changed my life.
In the past, I had the tendency of building certain habits just because they were popular or on-trend The thing I never seemed to do was ask myself why I wanted to build this habit in the first place and whether the habit even suited me and my needs. So when I struggled to wake up every day at 7 am I just assumed there was something wrong with me.
But James Clear implies there’s nothing wrong with you if you can’t build a habit.
It’s just not the right habit for you.
And since then, I’ve applied this rule, not only to my daily habits but to my productivity and wellness routine as well.
So this blog post doesn’t just show you how to successfully build better habits.
This blog post shows you how to build habits that are not only healthy but also serve you and your needs, so you stay committed and consistent.
What is a habit?
Before I dive deep into how you can set up your habits to consistently work for you and your needs, let me first cover what a habit actually is.
Simply put, a habit is a learnt behaviour.
This habit has been repeated so many times that it has become something we do without thinking despite whether it benefits us or not.
A healthy habit is anything you repeatedly do that positively contributes to your physical, mental or emotional well-being and benefits you long-term. Think staying hydrated and drinking at least 2 litres of water a day, engaging in daily movement and getting between 7 and 9 hours of sleep each night.
An unhealthy habit is anything that gives you short-term gratification but does not contribute to your health long-term. Yes, scrolling on your phone might give you an instant buzz but what lasting benefits does it give you? Other examples of unhealthy habits can include binge drinking, smoking, mindlessly watching TV and eating fast food, etc.
So when you are looking to adopt new habits, it’s important that you focus on building ones that make you feel good (both inside and out) long after the dopamine hit has worn off.
The benefits of building healthy habits
If you think about it, our entire daily life is made up of tiny habits.
Some habits like exercising actively benefit our health and wellness while other habits like scrolling do not. It’s therefore essential that you focus on adopting habits that actually serve you — your needs, your goals, your values and your vision.
I’m not just talking about unhealthy habits here.
I’m also talking about those habits you build because everyone else seems to be doing them.
The bottom line is, if you adopt healthy habits that actually suit you and your lifestyle, you’re more likely to stick with them. For example, there’s no point in building the habit of doing daily yoga if you hate yoga!! Find an activity you do actually enjoy (more on this below).
By being proactive with building habits that are not only healthy but also serve you, you can start to experience a number of benefits.
These benefits include:
- Improved physical and mental health
- Increased energy levels
- Better stress management
- Reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression
- Increased productivity and focus
- Better quality of sleep and improved cognitive function
- Increased discipline, determination, and resilience, which can translate to success in various areas of our lives
- Greater likelihood of achieving long-term goals
- Motivate you to create a healthier and more fulfilling lifestyle
Building more positive habits that actively serve us may require some effort and dedication, but as you can see, it’s totally worth it!!
How to break unhealthy habits
Before you can start to build a series of healthy habits, you first need to break habits that no longer serve you.
Take a moment now to identify the habits you need to break because they’re unhealthy or want to break because they no longer serve you.
I suggest writing down every single habit you have during a typical day. By “every single habit,” I mean down to the very small details like placing your phone on the table at dinner. It’s usually these tiny, insignificant habits that have the most negative impact on us, even though we may not be fully aware of them.
Once you’ve made a list of all of your habits, go through each one to figure out what you are getting from the habit. Ask yourself this simple question:
- What need(s) is this habit serving?
If you can’t list at least three benefits of having this habit in your life, then it’s time to let it go.
It only takes around 3 weeks to break a habit. And the key to breaking a habit is to replace it with a habit that does actually benefit you. So next to each habit you want to break — write down a healthier alternative.
Need help establishing habits that actually serve you? Keep reading…
5 ways to build healthy and sustainable habits that actually serve you
1 | Establish what habits you want to build
Whenever I look to build a new habit, I first get clear on why I want to adopt this habit in the first place.
For example, I want to build the habit of reducing my screen time before bed because I know it will improve my sleep quality as well as free up some time for me to read for 30 minutes before bed.
But my reasons to build this habit aren’t just limited to my physical wellness. But my mental and emotional wellness too.
Going screen-free an hour or two before bed would also prepare my mind for rest, promote relaxation and reduce feelings of anxiety because I wouldn’t be comparing myself to others just before sleeping.
So before you build any new habits, you need to first get clear on why and how this habit will benefit you.
You also want to make sure that the habit(s) you build is right for you. For example, don’t build the habit of drinking a green juice every morning if you’re not a fan of green juices.
Saying “my favourite influencer does this” is not a good enough reason for wanting to build the habit yourself.
The core reason for wanting to do something needs to always relate back to you — your needs, your goals, your values and your vision.
Remember, just because it’s a trend on TikTok doesn’t mean it will work for you.
Build habits that actually serve you.
You’ll find that by building habits in this way, you’ll more likely be able to stick to them, which in turn will make the whole habit-building process easier and more enjoyable!
So dig deep and reflect on these questions:
- Why do I want to build this habit?
- What need(s) is this habit serving?
- How will this habit impact my life? What are the benefits?
- Does this habit suit my personality? Will it bring me joy?
- Does this habit align with the lifestyle I want? Is it realistic to achieve daily?
- Who else will benefit if I succeed with this habit?
N.B. If you’re a little unsure of what habits to establish, check out this extensive list of 101 healthy habits that you can add to your wellness routine.
To effectively build the habits you want, it’s essential that you get specific and precise about what this looks like. Avoid vague statements such as “I’m going to read more,” and instead, create clear and tangible habits that outline the exact actions you will take, when you will take them, and how often.
For example, a specific action would be, “I will read 5 pages of Atomic Habits by James Clear every night this month as soon as I get into bed after having brushed my teeth and before I fall asleep.”
By building your habit(s) in this way, you’ll have a better chance of staying accountable and making progress towards completing them.
So do not skip this step and create clear and tangible actions for your habits!
Another effective way of maintaining new habits is to build them on top of existing ones. This term is called “habit stacking” and again I was first introduced to it by James Clear (seriously this man is a genius!!).
Because brushing your teeth is a habit that you do consistently, it makes sense to use it as a trigger to start a new habit. For instance, you can attach the habit of doing a short exercise routine to brushing your teeth. After you brush your teeth in the morning, you can commit to doing a 5-minute workout. Similarly, after you brush your teeth at night, you can practice gratitude for 5 minutes.
By stacking new habits onto existing ones, you can increase your chances of successfully building your new habit(s) to work for you.
So identify an existing habit that you do consistently and stack a new habit onto it.
3 | Make your habits fun
If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you’ll know I’m all about fun.
YOLO is all too real so why would you spend your life doing things you don’t enjoy?
Implementing new habits into your routine does not need to feel like a chore. It’s supposed to be a positive experience. In fact, building habits can actually be fun!
Yes, it’s a given that not all the habits you adopt will be the most fun thing you do — I mean let’s face it getting into the habit of exercising each day is a lot less fun than going out for pizza with your BFFs. But it’s also important to keep in mind that building healthy habits like exercising daily will lead to long-lasting benefits.
So how can you make exercising daily more fun?
For starters, you can listen to a booty-shaking music playlist during your workout. You can also find an accountability partner or join a fitness class to turn your habit into a social activity.
Or even try switching up your exercise routine and find other forms of movement that are more enjoyable for you. This could be hiking, wild swimming, rock climbing or dancing, etc. There are so many physical activities out there that do not require you to hustle away at a gym.
So make the process of building new habits easier by finding the “most enjoyable version of each habit you do.” (James Clear)
Here are a few questions to help get you started:
- What is your definition of fun?
- What would your habits look like if they were more fun?
- How would you feel?
- How can you implement this into the new habits you want to build?
Quick Side note
If after you’ve made your new habit more fun but you’re still struggling, chances are the habit isn’t a good fit for you. Despite what other wellness influencers will have you believe, struggling to build certain habits or choosing to skip a day doesn’t mean you have failed. It simply means you are noticing a disconnect between you and your habits.
If that is the case, take this as your opportunity to take a step back and reassess.
Figure out where it is going wrong — is it the habit? Maybe it’s the time of day you have chosen to do this particular habit or maybe the action is just not specific enough.
So keep experimenting until you find what works best for you.
“There is a version of every habit that can bring you joy and satisfaction. Find it. Habits need to be enjoyable if they are going to stick… tailoring your habits to your personality is a good start”
James Clear | Atomic Habits
4 | Start small and stay consistent
Starting anything new can feel daunting and overwhelming, especially if you try and implement everything all at once. My advice to you is to not go all-in on the first day and try to build multiple different habits. Because chances are you’ll hit habit overwhelm and give up after the first day.
Building new habits needs to be realistic and easy for you to achieve as well as sustainable.
Choose the habits first that seem easy for you to do or the ones that will have the biggest impact on you.
Start small and go from there.
It takes 6 weeks to firmly establish a new habit and 36 weeks until this new habit becomes second nature. So stay consistent. If you’ve followed the above steps and built your habits to work for you, then hopefully this isn’t a problem.
But in saying that, it is totally normal to have bad days. The most important thing is to give yourself grace, pick yourself back up and keep moving forward.
Remember, progress, not perfection, is the goal.
5 | Use a habit tracker to visually see progress
Studies show that we are a lot more likely to do something if it is written down.
So keep track of your daily habits and stay accountable by using a progress tracker.
With a habit or progress tracker, you can mark off the habits you managed to complete each day and visually see your progress and stay motivated to continue. And don’t forget to celebrate your success along the way to boost confidence.
Tracking progress can also help you identify the habits you’re consistently missing so you can readjust your habit routine where needed.
Either spend time making your own or use the done-for-you habit tracker (and stacker) included in The Daily Wellness Planner.
Final thoughts
By mastering your daily habits, you can create a healthier and more fulfilling life.
So start small, stay positive, and keep working towards your ideal version of yourself.
You’ve got this!
I encourage you to bookmark this page so you can refer back to it whenever you need to.
And if you need any additional support or accountability, please feel free to send me an email.
My inbox is always open.
Until next week,
♡ Thalia xx
