by: Rachelle Disbennett-Lee
Real change happens only when it becomes part of our everyday life. When a change becomes a habit, it isn't something new we are trying, but becomes part of what we do as our routine. I was reading a Wynona Judd interview and they asked her about her diet. She replied that she wasn't on a diet; she was on "A Live It." I thought this was great because the risk of a diet or any change is that we won't stick to it. We won’t live it. We will simply do it until we get the results we want, or get discouraged, and revert to our old habits. A live it is not something that we are going to do for a short while, but something we will do for a lifetime.
Permanent change comes only when we integrate the change into our lives and form a new habit. Everything we do is habit. From getting up in the morning and brushing our teeth, to the side of the bed we tuck ourselves into at the end of the day. Habits might seem like actions that are hard to add to your life. But, there was a time when taking a bath was not a habit, and as children we might have even tried to get out of taking baths. Other daily habits that we have such as brushing our teeth or eating certain foods all are habits we formed at one time or another. Habits become habits because of repetition. If you do something enough times it will become a habit.
The trick is not to try to change too much all at once. It takes time to form a habit, so pick just one or two things you would like to live, and begin integrating those changes into your life. Focus on just the one or two new changes until they become a habit, or what I refer to as getting it at a cellular level. Once the changes are integrated into your life and you are truly living it, try implementing another change or two. It may not seem like a lot, but if you just created one new habit a year, you would have ten new habits in a ten-year period.
Notice that I am not talking about breaking a habit or getting rid of a habit. I don't believe that is possible. I truly believe we have to replace or change the habit. The universe abhors a void, so we cannot just remove the habit, because it will leave a void and something will need to fill it. If we don't replace the habit with a new one, chances are the old one will return. Creating new habits is simply about deciding what you want more of or less of, and then creating habits that will allow you to achieve that. So instead of going on something or making temporary changes, decide what you want to be different, and live it.