Why Do Good Habits Die so Easily?

Why is it that bad habits seem to form so easily and good habits can disappear so quickly? Ever since the kids brought home their Halloween candy, it's become a ritual to say, "Can I have a piece of candy?" after nearly every meal. It only took a few times to solidify that bad habit. The good news is that we were all gone and busy the first 3 days this week and since we've been home, I haven't heard about having candy after our meals. So maybe that's the key to losing bad habits...leave town for a few days. Well that doesn't seem so practical. Maybe it would help to just remove yourself from the situation, position, routine, environment that fosters and supports the habit. I don't know. That's just something I've thought about this week. This isn't eaters anonymous or anything. If we remove ourselves from the routine so the bad habit can die, then is it likely that we should do the opposite to support the new good habits?

What environment, company, routines, and situations will support your new good habits (or behaviors that you want to be habits)? I have a feeling that this is why some of our new good habits die easily. We don't change the environment, routines, or company to support them. We try to do something new in an old environment. When we get tired of doing the new thing, it's so easy to do the old thing. It's what we know best. When we find our good habits fading, maybe we should do an inventory of the other things surrounding us to make sure they're supporting our goals rather than creating resistance towards them.

Recently, I read this: "95 percent of Americans have no written goals. A recent Harvard study showed that only 5 percent of Americans have written goals and many of them are among the highest earning people in the nation. That's because successful people are willing to make sacrifices and put in the time of preparation that unsuccessful people aren't willing to do." If this is true, I think we've found another key to keeping new good habits...write them down and prepare for the change. It's not enough to dream about it and have vision for it. We need to dream, plan, make action steps, find motivation through other good resources/support/help, understand the learning curve and possible set-backs and load up on the persistence and perseverance.

This week, let's write down what we want to accomplish then make a plan. Let's understand that we need a supportive environment and create new routines to foster the new habit. Then with that understanding, let's make the change so success will be guaranteed. Sticking with it is key. Many very successful people saw very big failures before they ever saw success. Ups and downs are bound to happen. It's what we do when we fall down that matters.