Tag Archives: habit

Forming a GOOD habit

Forming a good habit is more difficult than forming a bad habit. Usually a bad habit has its own rewards, however a good habit you have to reward yourself until the habit is formed then you realize the benefits of the good habit.  For example forming the habit of Journaling, exercise or eating healthier you will not realize the reward until you do these for a while. What habit do you need to form to further your preparedness? Remember when a disaster happens you will need to be in pretty good shape to survive. Do you need to lift weights to become strong? Do you need to start walking or running to become more fit or to lose weight? Do you need to change your diet to incorporate eating wheat? Do you need to work on projects to get ready? Do you need to walk with your backpack to build up your endurance? Whew, I get tired just thinking about all of that. Let’s talk about the steps we need to take to get to our new habit.

The first step is to identify the one habit that we need/want to make. Only work on one habit at a time. The habit needs to be somewhat specific like walking every day at a certain time. You may want to use one of your S.M.A.R.T. goals and make it a habit. Decide on how far you want to be able to walk without a break. Then you can add carrying your backpack with 10 – 50 pounds of equipment in it. And last but not least, how much time will it take for you to be able to accomplish this?

Give yourself a little more time than you think it will take.

Next, write down the benefits of starting this new habit. Taking the habit above the benefits would be when a disaster happens you will be able to evacuate to a certain point in a certain time limit. You will also be in better physical condition & healthier, and hopefully you will have your backpack filled with what you will need for the trip.

The next step will be to commit your self to starting the habit. Is the habit something you can accomplish? Do you have the time worked out that you can do the habit everyday? Decide on how you are going to keep track of the times that you do the habit. Will you mark it on the calendar? Will you make a sheet that has blocks to check off? It is widely accepted that it takes 21 days to make a habit stick, so decide when you have everything in order to be able to start.

The next step is to set your goals and what type of reward you will give yourself along the way of the 21 days. And it is better to make the rewards more often. You may want to set a goal of after the first 2 days you will be able to walk ½ of a mile without stopping and you will reward yourself with watching a particular movie that you have been waiting to see. Then in 2 more days you should be able to walk 1 mile and your reward will be taking your friend out for coffee. These are just examples, make yours particular for you and something that you normally don’t do. If you are not able to walk that distance you may need to change your goals, but at least you did walk every day. If you don’t walk a day, then you will start back over to the first day of developing the habit.  You have 52 chances in a year to start a new habit, and don’t beat yourself up because you failed.  Just start over again. When you are writing everything down, write the habit or goal on a piece of paper or on a 3X5 card and post it in a few places in your apartment or house. Post it where you will see it everyday, this will remind you of the habit and increase the likelihood of you accomplishing it. After the 21 days and your habit is established, you can start a new one.

Tell your family and friends that you have started the habit. It will make you accountable to other people, because they will ask you how your habit is going.

Use this guide to help you start good habits that are essential in your preparedness.