3 Resources for Building Habits That Last – ElPropósito2 min de lectura

What’s the difference between "I lost 50 pounds" and "I exercise as part of a healthy life"? Let’s find out

According to the Royal Spanish Academy, a habit is a particular way of behaving (in life) acquired by repeating the same acts.

Throughout my life I’ve been interested in the mechanisms or processes that let me pick up habits and drop them. For example, understanding how I quit smoking and managed to take up and strengthen other healthy habits. Or how, after so many years, I keep up my reading habit and keep improving it. Or how, despite the cold, I still decide to get in the water and finish my swim.

Habits play a big part in reaching my personal and professional goals.

There’s a lot of theory about how many times you need to repeat something for it to become a habit. I’ve been especially curious about "how to do it," and even more about "what for" (for me, that’s where everything lies).

Three tools opened up this powerful path of creating, changing and dropping habits for me:

Book: The Power of Habit. Through the cue, routine and reward loop, Charles Duhigg explains how habits can be changed or created. I learned that creating or changing habits always comes through the reward (what do I want to do this, or stop doing it, for?). For example, I know that after swimming I’ll feel stronger and full of energy to start my day, and that’s the spark that gets me moving

App: Habit List. I use it to track my habits. It keeps me aware of what’s important to cultivate in my life

Video: Cómo cambiar tu conducta (How to Change Your Behavior). An excellent interview with my always-recommended Dr. Mario Alonso Puig. A very powerful and deep resource for understanding how to make those changes in thoughts, behaviors and habits

Is there a resource that helps or has helped you create or change habits in your life that you’d like to share with me?

A hug and have a great week,

Rodrigo

Author: Rodrigo Baccaro

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