Creating Your Habit Environment

By Leo Babauta Let’s imagine that you’re going to change your diet — you’re going from eating chips, ho-hos, Double Down Chicken Sandwiches and taco “meat” in a Dorito shell, to eating fruits and veggies and beans and nuts and whole grains. Sound easy? But when you’re stressed and tired from a long day of rebranding meetings and obsessively checking your Facebook, and don’t have much willpower, you’ll reach for the easiest snack, the thing you’re used to and comfortable with. And when your co-workers or family breaks out the cupcakes or home-made cookies, you can’t resist the temptation, just this once. Old habits are hard to break for many reasons, but your environment is one of the biggest. Stay in your old environment, and your old habits will be much harder to change. But change your environment, and it’s easy. Some examples: Go to a retreat and eat nothing but the delicious and healthy vegetarian food they make for you — that’s easy. Go back home when the retreat is over and you fall back into your old patterns (i.e. stuffing your face with eggo waffles and bacon). Hang out with a bunch of runners who invite you on some beautiful runs, and it’s easy to become a regular runner. But hang out with people who like to watch sports on TV all weekend, or play video games, or drink beer at pubs, and you’re less likely to run regularly. Hang out with smokers, at places where ev...
Source: Zen Habits - Category: Life Coaches Authors: Tags: Habits Source Type: blogs