"How To Learn To Get Up Earlier, READ MORE AND LEARN LANGUAGES ". Belle COOPER Life Coach Tips

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Usually, when planning to change our life for the better, we choose Monday as the starting point. And many even manage this day to quit smoking, play sports or stop abusing coffee. But very often everything ends on Monday …

Therefore, we want to share with you a post by freelancer and life coach Belle Cooper, in which she shares her thoughts on this matter.

The author considers a habit to be the main guarantee of success and assures that it is much easier to acquire it than it seems: you just need to remove barriers and not take on too much. For example, if you want to read more but are constantly running out of time, start with one page a day and over time you will be able to achieve the desired result. And this applies to everything. After all, small daily habits can have significant long-term results.

Belle herself, for example, using this technique, learned to speak and write in French, allocating only 5 minutes a day for classes.

There are four principles Belle advises to adhere to when forming a new habit, and that work flawlessly.

1. Start small: repeat the same action every day

Setting ourselves such ambitious goals as changing life for the better, we, as a rule, make the same mistake - we are too demanding of ourselves. To increase the amount of literature she read, Belle set herself the goal of reading one book a week. Therefore, she had to wake up at 6 am, instead of 9. But this did not bring the desired result. After all, besides the fact that such bullying of ourselves does not cause any pleasure, they also often end in failure, which further demoralizes us.

Better to rejoice at small victories, which will turn into a useful habit every day. Belle changed tactics and focused on repeating one action every day without thinking about the result. In other words, quantity first, then quality. We tend to overestimate our capabilities, especially when it comes to things that we have not done before. Better to be realistic and start with 20% of the time and effort that we would like to devote to a new business.

Belle read one page of the book every night before bed. Sometimes more, but only if you wanted to. Later, when this habit had already taken root, she tried to devote at least 15 minutes daily to reading until she got to 30 minutes every evening and another 30 almost every morning.

In 2013, she read seven books. In 2014 -22, in 2015 - 33. Almost five times more than in 2013.

Belle worked on this habit for a year and a half. It sounds like quite a lot, but it only seems so.

"When I'm working on a habit, all I think about is how much I need to read to feel like I've successfully fulfilled my commitment to myself."

It is always a small effort that I concentrate on. But when I analyze progress, I understand, or I can achieve noticeable results thanks to these small daily habits, - writes Belle.

2. Focus on only one habit at a time

We often approach changes in life in a complex manner, especially if it is accompanied by an explosion of enthusiasm. We take on several cases at the same time. But the more we take on ourselves, the faster we get tired and give up.

It's like multitasking, where your brain is forced to constantly switch because you just can't focus on multiple things at the same time.

Therefore, Belle recommends working on only one habit at a time. And only when this habit becomes so automatic that you stop noticing how you perform it, you can move on to a new one.

“Sometimes it can take a long time to get into a habit. And the most for me was to get used to waking up early. I focused on this for about four months, testing different approaches, tracking progress, and reporting to friends who agreed to help me. I wanted it to become my habit, but at the same time I realized that I couldn’t form new habits yet. Today I'm glad I didn't give up, because I wake up early almost every day without any problems. It was not easy, but worth it, Belle shares her experience.

But the time it takes to form one habit is an individual thing. It is said that it takes 21 days to acquire a habit, but research shows that everyone has their own time frame for establishing new habits. Moreover, each habit needs to be evaluated differently, depending on how difficult it is for you to stick to it.

3. Remove barriers: keep everything you need close at hand

Belle has also found that it is much easier to work with a habit if she has the right tools at hand. For example, when you are drinking coffee and you already have a phone in your hand - why not take one lesson in the Duolingo program, instead of flipping through the news feed again. Want to read more? Keep the book close to your bed.

Some call it a tipping point. It's a small change that keeps you from making up various excuses. One cool example of a tipping point is found in a study on tetanus at a teacher training university. The study looked at this question: Will the impulse to get vaccinated to get infected by students? The level of fear did not cause any noticeable change, but one valuable observation from the study did find that when a card was hung on campus showing the doctor's office and appointment times for tetanus shots, vaccinations rose from 3% to 28%.

A tipping point is a small change that makes a task simple enough to start right away. This is a kind of elimination of barriers that simplifies any task.

“The habit I'm working on in 2016 is to play the piano more often. Now I only play when the muse appears, and that's enough to improve a little. But I noticed that it’s easier to sit yourself at the piano when it’s available. Now it sits in the corner of the dining room, so I can always sit down and play a little while I wait for something to cook, or after an evening snack, says Belle.

Let's say your goal is to exercise regularly. When you put on your sportswear, the chances that you will go for a run increase. However, by that time, you can think of just a million reasons not to. Therefore, it is worth putting your sports uniform in plain sight even in the evening, perhaps even somewhere closer to the bed, so that you can put it on right away.

4. Build new habits from old ones

Belle says this is one of her favorite tricks. This approach helps you add multiple habits to your daily routine, each of which will motivate the other. You most likely already have many habits that you don't even realize. Brushing your teeth before bed, getting out of bed in the morning, making coffee at the same time …

If you do something every day without even thinking about it, add new habits to this action. As you practice one habit, you will automatically move on to the next. For example, when you wake up, immediately go to the kitchen to brew coffee. When it's ready, you anticipate the scented drink while doing the Duolingo exercise. That is, the habit of drinking coffee becomes a reason for learning a foreign language. And when you’re going to sleep in the evening, take a few minutes to read a page of the book while sitting in bed.

Research suggests that this is the best way to practice new habits when you're just starting to build them. Thus, in the old actions that you perform automatically, new ones are added.

"For me, building new habits has become a bit of a hobby. I like to think about all the improvements that I will subsequently achieve just by getting used to new little actions day after day. This makes significant results more achievable."

Based on materials from the founders of the Exist self-discovery platform