31 Jan 8 most sought after good habits (and how to achieve them)
What do you need for more happiness? Good habits
When do you want more happiness? Now
So keep reading for these happiness habits via the Ladders and Thomas Oppong…
Building new habits is hard; building a bunch of new habits at once is even harder. Many people are great at making a list of habits they want to change or adapt in January, but they are also great at forgetting about them.
According to researchers at Duke University, habits account for about 40 percent of our behaviors. Biting off more than we can chew is one of the major reasons why we fail to build good habits or overcome bad ones.
To form better habits or start new ones, focus on fixing one thing at a time. And break your goals down into small, digestible portions. They become easy to build and maintain. “You don’t need to overhaul your life. Just kill one bad habit. Give it a month and then move on to the next,” recommends Eric Barker.
But resolving to accomplish something doesn’t actually prompt you to act. You need to mentally prepare yourself for change, and begin with practical goals. The trick is to avoid vague goals. Design tangible steps you can take regularly, then actually follow through on those steps.
YouGov recently published a list of the most common habits people want to build this year. If you are hoping to spark positive change this year, you can start with some of these popular good habits. Let’s talk about how you can achieve them.
1. Exercise more
Exercise can reshape the ageing process. Any form of movement establishes better blood flow to your brain. It can even slow memory loss, increase brain volume, and improve your mood.
Want to refresh your brain at work, stand up every 30 or 45 minutes. Get moving, often. So many of us are chained to our desks every day,” says nutrition and fitness author Louise Parker. Make it a habit and you will concentrate and focus better on what matters most at work.
Want to get fit? Take the stairs or plan short walks on your calendar. Commit to going for a walk every single day of the month. To make it easier to start, plan for just 15 minutes long walk. Leave your phone at home — just observe the world around you and think.
2. Save more money/spend less money
Deciding to save is a common wish. But not many people can actually save. Research shows that 15 per cent of British people have no savings at all, rising to more than half of 22- to 29-year-olds.
It can be hard to start saving, especially if money is tight generally. The good news is that you can still build a savings habit no matter how small your income. Start planning your meals to cut unnecessary spending on the grocery — set a small weekly budget.Follow Ladders on FlipboardFollow Ladders’ magazines on Flipboard covering Happiness, Productivity, Job Satisfaction, Neuroscience, and more!
Cancel services can want but don’t really need. Get into the habit of logging into your online bank account once a month to monitor or analyse your spending habits and get rid of expending direct debits, and look for cheaper alternatives.
For cost-intensive items, do your research for better deals. And most importantly protect your savings by investing it a cost-effective index fund so that it continues to grow instead of spending it each month. Set up an automatic withdrawal from your paycheck to a savings or investment account.
3. Eat more healthily
Apart from everything else you know about eating healthy — more vegetables, fibre, fruit, oily fish, and reducing saturated fat, you can also start cutting back on foods with added sugar. It’s one of the best things you can do for your health this year. Reducing your sugar intake is a good thing for your metabolic health.
“Sugar turns on the aging programs in your body,” Dr Lustig says. “The more sugar you eat, the faster you age,” says Dr Robert Lustig, professor of pediatric endocrinology at the University of California.
Cutting added sugar isn’t easy, but once you slowly limit your sugar intake, you’ll start to feel more energetic, more focused and less irritable. You might even lose weight. And remember to drink more fluids to stop you from getting dehydrated — not only can drinking a glass or two before a meal help you to feel full sooner (resulting in eating fewer calories)…
…keep reading the full & original article HERE