Forming Habits

15-12-23 00 / episode: 333

Habits seem to be the key to success and excellence.

There are endless videos out there about habits and how to form them.

I will talk about how to make a habit and I’ll talk a little bit about strong and weak habits

and some of the problems that you can find with habits

and a super book to get if you want to form good habits.

Introduction

Hi and welcome to the Les Perras podcast episode number 333.

This podcast is excellent for extensive English listening, to help you expand your listening vocabulary.

Today's podcast episode is about habits.

How to make a habit

Making a habit is the hardest part.

Usually you're going to make a habit out of something that you don't feel inclined to do naturally.

If you felt inclined to do something naturally you wouldn't need to make it a habit.

The best way to start a habit is to attach your target habit to an already existing habit.

For instance if you want to practise listening to English,

then make sure you listen to English for 3 minutes a day everyday after you brush your teeth.

Brushing your teeth is a pre-existing habit.

If you attach listening to English to a tooth brushing habit it will be much easier to keep.

How long does it take

Different people have come up with different studies to find out how long it takes to make a habit.

So there's more than one answer and I'm not sure which is the correct one. The answer I took is 30 days.

If you continue a new habit everyday for 30 days it should be yours.

On the other hand some people insist it is not really enough, you need 60 days.

So if you want to be considered conservative let's take 2 months to form a habit.

Strong and weak habits

Some habits are strong habits and some habits are weak habits.

I'm not using this in the way you probably think.

A strong habit is a habit that is very difficult to break.

For instance if you take a holiday and go travelling for a week and come back you can resume the habit easily.

Toothbrushing is an example of this.

Doing your laundry is another example of this.

On the other hand some habits are weak habits.

Even a small change in your daily schedule or routine can change the habit or break it.

Some of the strongest habits tend to be bad habits.

That's something to watch out for.

Problems with habits

The big problem with habits is when you think it's a strong habit and it's beneficial but in fact it's a weak habit.

That means it's easy to break and it gets broken time and again.

Then you find yourself in a problem because you're not doing the behaviour you need to be doing regularly.

You get fooled into thinking you have a strong habit but it's not.

Also you do the habit when it's not necessary.

You do it simply because it's a habit.

Finally I think a problem with habits is you do things mindlessly.

You don't think about it so the quality of your behaviour and attention goes down.

This can lead to problems downstream and again you're fooling yourself.

Super book for habits

If you really want to get a good habit going or a good system of habits go out and buy the book called Atomic Habits.

I'm not going to get any money from it.

I didn't write it.

And I don't have any affiliation with it.

On the other hand I know it's a good book and it really works.

If you like listening to English for your extensive English listening then hit the Subscribe button below so you can get more of my podcasts.

I’d love it if you made a comment below, too.

Tell me if you have any habits that you want to make.