Making a New Habit

Nuggets of wisdom from self-improvement literature

By: Nina Afremov

There are tons of good habits that are worth instilling into our lives: working out in the morning, doing the dishes right after we cook, reading for 30 minutes each day, cutting back on screen time, etc. At least these are a few habits that I’ve been trying to incorporate into my own lifestyle. 

As someone who is passionate about reading and self improvement, it only made sense for me to buy a book about making good habits. I chose “Badass Habits: Cultivate the Awareness, Boundaries, and Daily Upgrades You Need to Make Them Stick” by motivational speaker Jen Sincero for guidance.

To start, I applied Sincero’s advice to one habit I’m working towards—regular exercise.  A practical suggestion to help reach this goal was tallying each day I worked out. I placed a small whiteboard on my wall where I could see it from my sofa and began tallying off the days. The trick is to mark the days in a doable time frame—21 days at a time. As soon as you reach those 21 days, start again! For each of these days, Sincero also wrote a motivational chapter and a prompt for self-reflection, which made the process feel much more intentional.

There was one sentiment from the book, though, that really stuck with me as I continued to work through my goals: creating a habit takes a certain degree of sacrifice. If it didn’t, then we’d all be rocking every single one of our new badass habits each and every single day. In my case, I want to work out three to five mornings a week. This means that during those days, I need to leave the comfort of my bed to move my body in a physically exhausting way. To me, the sacrifice is worth better sleep and mental health, even if it is difficult. So, the best way to build a habit is to assess whether you’re dedicated to making it happen in the first place.