Are your current habits aligned with the life you want to create? More importantly, are your habits aligned with your goals and dreams? If you answered no to one or both of these questions, it may be time to develop new habits!

Sometimes we think we need to make drastic changes or make a big breakthrough in order to develop new habits, but extraordinary life changes happen because of what we do every day and, importantly, as we do it

By creating new habits, you are building a new you.

Developing new habits requires open and compassionate thinking. It requires focus. By taking powerful steps in your daily routine, you can successfully develop new habits that will allow you to achieve the life, goals, and dreams you’ve always wanted.

In this article, we share our top four mindsets to help you develop new habits for transformational change.

Are you ready to fully expand your thinking?

This YA Classes program will provide you with the techniques you need to work with and overcome your limiting beliefs and thought patterns through the use of mantras. Mantra Mindset is a five-class program that will support your new habit-forming regimen and change your outlook on life forever.

4 powerful thinking techniques that will help you develop new habits:

1. Focus on your new identity

When creating new habits, the journey begins with the excitement and motivation of creating a new life or achieving an important goal, but we often hit a wall. The problem is not yours; instead, the reality is that creating unique and sustainable habits is challenging.

In the New York Times bestseller atomic habits, James Clear talks about how your personality can shape your habits (and vice versa).

According to Clear, if you change the focus from an outcome, such as “run a marathon,” to a personality-based habit, “becoming a runner,” you’ll have tremendous success in long-term behavior change.

By the same example, to become runner, act as one on purpose. Ask yourself: what would a runner eat? What will the runner wear? How would a runner hydrate? And then fully embody the identity of the runner. You can be a runner from day one; remember, every time you run, you are a runner.

The power of habits is that even if you only focus on a “short run” with consistency, something crazy will happen after a short time; you begin to see yourself differently, and you begin to see yourself as a runner.

Ready to start your journey of self-discovery? Here’s a guided meditation to answer the eternal question, “Who am I?”

2. Start (really) small

According to Clear, motivation ranges from high to low on any given day; therefore we cannot rely on it. His strategy guide says, “Solve this problem by choosing a new habit that’s easy enough that you don’t need motivation to do it. Instead of starting with 50 push-ups a day, start with five push-ups a day.”

So, if you want to successfully develop new habits, start small and gradually increase; over time, this habit will become part of your personality and routine, and your new healthy behavior won’t be so difficult anymore.

“If your habits don’t match your dream, then you either need to change your habits or change your dream.” – John S. Maxwell

According to psychologists at University College London’s Department of Behavioral Sciences and Health, the average time it takes to inculcate a new habit is about 66 days if you consistently continue your new healthy behavior.

This morning routine will set you up for success every day

3. Develop a mantra mindset

Since we can’t rely entirely on motivation, I interviewed Pamela M. Nisiewicz Bede, nutrition expert, author, and 26-time marathon runner; I asked her how she stays motivated and shows up every day, even when she doesn’t feel like it.

Do you need daily motivation? Check out: A Year of Self-Motivation for Women: A Book by YouAligned Founder Ashton August here!

She said that on days when she needs a boost to motivate herself, her mantra is, “There’s going to come a day when you can’t do it. Today is not the day.” So on those days, she vows to move for at least ten minutes, and when she can’t get motivated, she tries to be kind to herself and treat it as a rest day.

We all have days when we are down, the weather is not helping, or many other situations affect our lives, but I firmly believe that this is a mindset: how we deal with adversity is entirely up to us. Developing new habits requires commitment and compassion.

We can let excuses distract us from our good habits, but at the end of the day, we have a choice. When you promise to show up for five minutes, having personal integrity behind something you’re committed to is powerful!

Our bodies are always talking to us. If you really listen to your mind and your physical body, you will know if you need to take a break or if you can show yourself for even five minutes. Use your intuition to create mantras of support and love to create new habits.

Use these 7 mantras to balance and heal your throat chakra

4. Create your environment

Our environment is everything, it can be a great tool to help us succeed in creating our new habits, or it can just as easily help us fail. In the same interview with Bede, I asked her how she maintains healthy travel habits. Her thinking is, “like any habit, you have to remove the obstacles and plan for success.”

Whether you’re traveling, at home, or in the office, removing obstacles and planning for success is critical to building new habits. As a runner who is literally on the go, Bede always packs workout clothes and books hotels near running tracks or opts for hotels with gyms. She also buys health and wellness products from local stores to keep her charged up.

Here are some other eco-friendly strategies for building new habits:

• If you’re trying to eat healthier, start by eliminating unhealthy temptations and instead
  place healthy food options close at hand
• If you try to exercise every day, lay out your workout clothes the night before and
  place them so you can see them as soon as you wake up
• If you’re trying to write a book, ditch your workplace and leave it
  ready for you to sit down and start writing

Create new habits – and a new you – with these powerful thinking techniques

Every day is an opportunity to start anew. This is the mentality. Believe in yourself; believe you can do it.

First, ask yourself, are my current habits aligned with the life I want to create?

Second, are my habits aligned with my goals and dreams?

Then start by figuring out how you want to see your personality and who you want to see
become. Next, set small goals that you can consistently achieve, and choose a mantra that you want to use on rainy days or when life gets tough. Finally, make sure you set your environment up for success.

By creating new habits, you are building a new you. So, as your journey progresses and you apply these mindsets, your identity will change and you, my friend, will see yourself differently, aligning your habits with your life’s goals.

Remember, as the famous Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

0——0————– April 12, 2023