What has happened to your dreams, the enthusiasm you had for life and the care you used to take of your appearance?
Here’s some really good news – it is never too late to take charge of your life and make the changes you deem necessary.
Its no secret that we as humans can help others, but when it comes to ourselves, we cannot seem to see the bigger picture.
One day we look in the mirror and see that the svelte figure we once had is no more, whether it be owing to childbirth, lack of exercise, fast food…
I could go on and on, but I won’t.
Where, however, do we begin?
James Clear, author on behavioural psychology and habit formation, provides insight into the formation of habits and the means of change.
Unless we uncover the reasons for forming habits in the first place, we will never be able to move forward.
In an article entitled ‘The 3 Rs of Habit Change: How to Start New Habits That Actually Stick’ (www.jamesclear.com), James states the following:
Sum of your habits
‘Your life today is essentially the sum of your habits.
‘How in shape or out of shape you are? A result of your habits.
‘How happy or unhappy you are? A result of your habits.
‘How successful or unsuccessful you are? A result of your habits.
‘What you repeatedly do (ie what you spend time thinking about and doing each day) ultimately forms the person you are, the things you believe and the personality that you portray.’
Every habit (good or bad), according to James, follows the same three-step pattern – ‘3 Rs’:
• Reminder – the trigger which initiates the behaviour;
• Routine – the action you take which results in the behaviour;
• Reward – the benefits provided by the resultant action.
If you continually repeat the action, ie behave/react in the same way, it will soon become a habit.
According to James, ‘you don’t eliminate a bad habit, you replace it’ because that habit resulted for a reason as a panacea (a solution or ‘healing’ measure) enabling you to cope.
‘Because bad habits provide some type of benefit in your life,’ he states, ‘it’s very difficult to simply eliminate them… and, it’s for this that you can’t simply cut them out of your life.
‘Instead,’ he advises, ‘you need to replace a bad habit with a new habit that provides a similar benefit.’
This week’s Femme Focus is closely linked to next week’s health page in which we will be looking at ways to cope with stress, including helpful advice from Richards Bay-based naturopath, Dr Faryal Luhar.
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