I have been working on several research projects examining the relationship between mindfulness, performance, and well-being (more to come on those soon).
That work has kept me away from writing recently on this blog. 🙁
So, for now, I’d like to point you to a great new piece from SwimSwam on creating good habits in swimming, sports, and life.
This is a topic I have covered in previous posts.
But here, Olivier Poirier-Leroy includes the following excellent summary on this topic:
- Keep them positive. Focus on building better routines and habits. Building something new is a metric ton more enjoyable than trying to suppress a bad habit. The positive nature of your new habit is more motivating than starting each day at a sense of status quo that you have to keep. Don’t replace one bad habit with a new negatively themed habit.
- Think of your new habits as overwriting the old, negative habits. It can be tempting to get wrapped up in the negative cycle of lapsing into our bad habits. It sucks enough that the habit is there, but we end up suffering over the fact that we succumbed to the bad habit again, propelling a brutal feedback loop that can be hard to get out of. Instead of trying to break this new habit, overwrite it with something new and improved.
- Write out the benefit(s) of building those new awesome habits. Intuitively understanding that eating better is good for you is nice, but writing it out makes it more real and gives you confirmation of the awesomeness awaiting you with that new habit. Knowing something is good for you is one thing, but articulating the benefits it provides you is next-level.
Please visit the SwimSwam site here for the full piece.
Happy habit-making!