Dawn's Evolution

Image by Getty Images via DaylifeWhat is a habit if not something you do often? Something that you are used to doing.

Those of us who read lifehack sites and the many self improvement books out there, know what habits we should be adopting. We know what habits we need to develop to be effective, successful and happy people. We know what makes us ineffective and unhappy and yet we are still unhappy and highly ineffective.

Why?
Because we have not yet developed the habits we have been reading about.
We keep reading post after post about the secret of success and how to attain it and then we leave it at that. We expect instant results and are discouraged when it takes longer than we initially projected.
Developing new habits takes time and most people lose interest after the first few weeks. We live in a fastfood/google world where we are used to getting instant results. So waiting weeks and months for significant change is close to impossible for most of us.

Many self-help guru's try to help us over this by including step by step instructions on how to form new habits. Getting very personal with us through notebooks and daily affirmations, hoping to keep our attention long enough that we may see results.
But the sad and simple truth is that most of us do not improve to the degree that we want to and sometimes need to.
We fall back into old habits far too easily, just because they are our habits and old habits are very hard to break.

So how do you form new habits?
Well first you have to know which habits you want and which you want to let go. Keep these 2 sets of habits in mind and make note whenever you feel you are falling back on the bad ones.
The most important factor when forming new habits is you. It's all up to you.
No one can change you if you do not want to be changed.
So it's time to make that decision and work at it.

So what is the secret to forming better habits?
It's all on you.