Habit: is neither good nor bad. A regular pattern practiced quite often; an activity happening regularly is called habit. 30 Days challenge for developing a new habit or changing an old one requires dedication, focus on the end goal/target, and motivation. Franklyn Covey in his book 7 Habits of Highly Effective People defined 2nd habit as “Keep the end in mind”, motivation can be achieved through this point.
To start 30 days challenge following steps are recommended:
Go Slowly: It would help retain the energy required at the depth of the challenge. Going too fast with lot of passion and energy would usually ends up in exhaustion, fatigue, and burnout.
Measurable short steps:
Break down the task in chunks; day1, day2, day3, … day5.. Week1.
Week1
Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Weekend
Week2 (MID POINT)
2nd last week
Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Weekend
Last week (Final Round)
Day 1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5 Day6 Weekend
Two bonus days to complete 30 days challenge.
A need is something which you cannot survive or difficult to survive without.
- Basic needs cover the needs to survive e.g., eating, drinking, clean air, shelter, sleeping etc.
- Social needs cover the needs of belonging and attachment e.g., friends, family, work, school, college etc.
- Psychological needs are met through finding the purpose of life which are further accomplished through meditation, breathing exercises, yoga and religious attachment.
When all these needs are met, we live a thriving life. Understanding the difference between need and habit is important to be able to address and accomplish the goal of habit change / habit development.
Habits developing into a need is the threshold and one should regularly do a self-assessment to check on if a habit is just a habit or is it touching the doors of “Need”.
30 days challenge
This 30-day challenge is a comprehensive guide to check on a habit / developing a habit / changing a habit.
- First Step (idea in your mind): Pin point any habit you had developed over a long period of time that is actually the most daunting habit that needs to be checked through this 30 day challenge.
- 2nd Step (on paper): Write it down. This is a confession statement where you confess on paper the habit you want to change or to develop a new habit.
- 3rd Step: Identify a replacement habit (If someone is looking to change an old existing habit).
- 4th Step: Give a thought and be gentle with yourself. Seizing a habit absolutely could be daunting. “Cold turkey” is a good strategy but alternative habit development is also a good approach to break the pattern developed over long period of time.
Alternative Habits selection
- Time equivalence habit. The new habit should be equally time bound with the old one.
- For cigarette smokers, single cigarette takes 4 – 7 minutes approx., so for 10 cigarettes smoked in a day it takes around 1 hour of your day.
1 HOUR EQUIVALENT ACTIVITY?
- Holding a pipe for the time usually spend during the time smoking cigarettes and just puffing without tobacco and once or twice in a day using tobacco filled pipe. “This is a personal perspective”, anyone can opt a different model e.g., someone might opt for vaping, chewing gums, etc. with time equivalent activity.
Similarly, for someone looking forward to changing the habit of playing any Video Game. Alternative habit selection would be to play a different game other than the previous game being played and a habit is being developed to break the old pattern and gradually changing further patterns and going towards creative skill learning through online platform is recommended. We at Boli Bolo is educating and providing services for people to learn and excel.
Developing a new habit is easier than replacing an old one due to its pattern developed over a span of time, therefore it is recommended to equate with time equivalent habit.
The success ratio determined through different research suggest only a very minor percentage successfully leave the habit of cigarette smoking and return back within a 1– 3 years.
Nicotine has a dark print, and the brain doesn’t forget the pattern printed, specifically for chronic chain smokers having the habit since decade or above. The older the habit is the more time, effort and energy required to replace that dark print.
General Guideline for Habit Development
Start practicing regularly e.g., if someone looking forward to developing a habit of walking / exercise daily for about 30 minutes.
Equating 30 minutes daily over a whole week:
- 7 x 30 = 210 minutes = 3 hrs 30 mins
We have the target in mind to achieve that is 3hrs and 30 mins per week activity. One can start with 40 minutes for the 1st day as the passion is new with high energy. The 2nd and 3rd day with equally passionate attempts achieving 40 minutes workout, but then there are days where one feel low or other related business and can just touch 20 minutes of activity and the other 2 days again a mix of 20 and 30 minutes with having 1 rest day.
The equation for the whole week activity:
- 40 + 40 + 40 + 20 + 20 + 30 + 0 = 190 minutes = 3hrs and 10 minutes
Now in this scenario the habit builder is just touching the target with 1 rest day (having no activity), he/she can easily target the next week with similar or can change the pattern keeping the end target in mind which is 3hrs and 30 minutes.
Similarly, an altogether different strategy could be followed to achieve the desired results. Going on a long walk / hike for about 2 hrs and 30 minutes of activity, the remaining target would just be 60 minutes to be achieved in whole week.
Is dieting a new habit development OR replacing the old habit of eating?
Well, eating is a need, but we can add a certain pattern to alter our eating pattern. For example, adding a salad bowl and developing this habit could achieve the minimal target of “dieting”. Similarly, leaving sugar immediately for certain people is difficult. Replacing white sugar with brown sugar and developing this habit plays a significant role in our calorie count.
The concrete answer for “Is dieting a new habit or replacing an old one “is bit tricky:
In some scenarios one is developing a new habit.
- Intermittent fasting is a new habit development.
- Keto diet / ketosis process is altering the old eating pattern, or we can safely say that keto is the replacement of old habit of eating.
- Adding green tea with lemon and without sugar after every meal is a new habit development.
- Stir fry vegetables in teaspoon of olive oil is a habit replacement, changing the pattern of cooking and thus changing the calorie intake.
Every individual is unique, so is their approach towards developing or replacing a habit. This article helps to kick start for 30 days and we at Tendwa encourages our participants to take 30-day challenge and improve their life.