The planning, motivation is a key part of the formation of any habit. The step that many people skip (when they fantasize about building a certain habit). They never clearly answer what they want to say.

It may seem like a small detail, but it plays a huge role in keeping motivation over time. When beginning a new habit without clearly defining your goals, they will start to weaken, and it will be very difficult to stay consistent.

Positive visualizations can be motivating and inspire us to push ourselves. Trying to “reinvent” at once can be the source of failure, and it’s probably why the whole “New Year’s Resolutions” hardly ever stick. It’s better instead to visualize the process of getting to a very achievable goal. Over time, practicing these “If this happens, then I will…” Moments causes people to become automatic, which is great for building habits. In other words, following up on an already existing habit like eating lunch, arriving home, etc, with a new “link in the chain” is a great way to get a habit started. For instance, instead of “I will keep a cleaner house,” you could aim for, “When I come home, I’ll change my clothes and then clean the kitchen.”

One very powerful way to put “If-then” planning into action is setting for those “Ahscrewit!” moments that sabotage new habits. In other words, minor setbacks and frustrating moments are habit killers.They just give excuses to skip habits or trick people into thinking it’s okay to just blow the whole thing off when we mess up. Taking a close look at a personal routine, particularly at moments right before starting a new session for habits, and decide what is giving “analysis paralysis,” or the internal struggle in your mind to do or not do something. Motivation alone has very little to do with successfully changing behaviors.

“When sitting to think why it wasn’t going to happen, I realized my closet was in another room. This meant walking out in the cold, in my tank top and shorts, to the other room, shivering while putting on my clothes. It was just easier to stay in bed. Once realizing this, I folded my clothes and shoes the night before, the next morning, rolling over and see my gym clothes sitting on the floor besides me. The result? My gym attendance went from 0 to 100. It’s important  to identify where exactly “getting started” falls apart for you and try to create shortcuts so that the uncomfortable moment is lessened, such as how  getting ready for the gym easier”.

Few forces in life are as powerful as our habits. Brushing your teeth three times a day and can’t imagine going to sleep without clean teeth, that’s a habit that will preserve your dental health for a lifetime.

Even if the habit is good or bad, they all share one common element. Once they’re created they’re extremely hard to break. Its especially true for habits that work against our health, such as those involving caffeine, nicotine, alcohol, unhealthy foods, and exercise, etc.

A way to fix an inner caveman is to adjust to an environment where the easiest thing to do is also the healthiest and most beneficial,.

Now that both sides of the issue are addressed, it’s time to make a choice. It’s no longer an involuntary, now knowing that making a choice every time you perform this action.