Did you know that 45% of what you do is done via brain autopilot!?! That’s a huge chunk of your time that you process without even thinking!

It is this autopilot system where all our habits can be found; both good and bad. And why changing them can be so hard. But not impossible.

We all tell ourselves how great it would be if we could just do that one thing every day that would make our lives easier. That could be drink more, eat healthy, exercise, write, meditate and so on. Below are my top 5 tips on how you can start to implement these changes and develop new improved habits.

1. Be specific!

Habits really do need to be as specific as you can get. A broad “eat healthy” isn’t going to wash. The brain can trick the body into thinking something is healthy when we all know full well it’s not. Such as a pizza with a side salad may be healthier than what you would have had previously, but still not especially healthy.

So get specific with it. “I want to drink 2litres of water a day” or “I want to meditate every evening”. This makes it much easier to keep your focus on the habit you wish to implement.

2. Make it easy!

Once you’ve got that specific goal try to make it as easy as possible to implement. For example, when I wanted to implement a daily 2 litre water intake I bought a 2litre water bottle. That way I only have to fill it up once and know when it’s gone I’ve achieved my goal for the day.

Your brain doesn’t take well to change, so you have to ease it in slowly. I know I only have to fill my bottle up once per day. That isn’t scary on the brain so it accepts it.

If your intended habit is to exercise or meditate, aim for 5 minutes per day not a full hour. Your brain can process the concept of 5 minutes much easier than the hour. Then once you’ve done your 5 minutes you can stay there as long as you like.

3. Track it

There is some merit in keeping a habit tracker, as it makes you be accountable to yourself. Seeing if you are completing the chosen habit regularly will indicate how well you’re doing. That’s not to say that you should beat yourself up if you fail though.

If you’re not managing to complete your chosen habit revisit the first 2 steps. Have you been specific enough or could you break it down even more? Is there anything you can do to make it even easier to complete on a daily basis? Could you combine the new practise with something you already do for example.

Also just to note, you shouldn’t need to track your new habits forever! After approximately 90 days of consistency your new habit should be part of the 45% autopilot brain.

4. Don’t take on too much

When you want to change I know how easy it can be to try doing it all at once. But remember, the brain cannot handle being overloaded! Too much change at the same time is more likely to lead to failure.

So when you want to make changes focus on 2 or 3 things at a time. Any more than this could cause overwhelm. If you have more changes you want to make, then start with the most important ones to you first.

Another element in this is try not to group the habits together. What I mean by this is we don’t want to start introducing 3 things to an evening routine all at the same time. Once again that will cause overwhelm.

5. Believe in yourself

Remember anything is possible if you put your mind to it! I know that in following these first 4 steps with faith in yourself you can make the changes you want to me.