On my last birthday, I adopted new habits for the year ahead. I have successfully maintained them until now, resulting in significant positive changes in my life.
These habits have profoundly influenced my lifestyle, and I aspire to replicate such transformations in the years to come.
It is valuable to articulate the process of establishing sustainable new habits and the concept of “integration”. I believe these ideas are beneficial and can be incredibly powerful.

Setting up a new habit is easy, but integrating it into your life can be challenging. It requires a strong willingness to change, a measure of discipline, and a compelling reason for doing so.
You must truly believe – be completely convinced – that the new way of living you intend to adopt, “the new habit” , is genuinely meaningful in order to be able to maintain it.

The goal is to achieve optimal physical and mental health. What are the simplest habits we can adopt?
– Healthy Eating
– Regular physical activity
– Great Human Relations

Now we know which habits contribute to achieving a specific goal. However, this knowledge alone is insufficient for meaningful change because:

1/ Habits defined like that are neither specific nor clear enough.

While it is easy to understand that maintaining excellent physical and mental health requires a nutritious diet, without a clear plan defining what constitutes healthy eating, it becomes challenging to integrate these practices into your lifestyle.
My point is that to successfully adopt a new habit, you must clearly define what the habit entails. This involves outlining the plan and the conditions necessary for effectively integrating the habit into your life, as well as understanding what success looks like. Without this clarity, you may lack a clear understanding of your purpose and actions, which can ultimately lead to failure in habit integration.
From my experience, a new habit should be both specific and as simple as possible. A habit that is easy to understand and does not require complex thought will be more quickly ingrained in your memory and will demand only minimal energy expenditure.
Therefore, it is advantageous to avoid “complex habits” such as seven-step processes, progressive habits, or time-scheduled routines. Instead, focus on optimizing new habits into a “simple habit” such as, for regular physical activity, aim for a twenty-minute sports session every day, regardless of the type of activity.
It is only when a habit is well established that you can make it more complex, such as, for this example, by designating a specific day for running, setting a target number of push-ups per day, or introducing a new exercise. Maintaining control is essential.

2/ The change in habits does not lead to an immediate transformation in physical and mental health.

The effects become noticeable after several days, or even weeks. This is significant because our largely primitive brain prefers two things: taking the simplest path and receiving quick rewards. However, the adoption of a new habit does not satisfy either of these criteria because:
– The simplest approach is to continue along the well-established and frequently utilized “old habit” path.
– There is typically no immediate reward for your actions after following a new habit for just one day. While one might consider rewarding themselves for successfully adopting a new habit (with a reward such as a sweet treat or a day off), I find this approach unappealing. It lacks clarity and does not demonstrate true self-control.

The most effective way to cope with the discomfort associated with adopting a new habit is to understand why your brain resists it and to establish realistic expectations. For instance, the benefits of a new habit, such as healthy eating, may be apparent after one to two weeks, rather than immediately. You will need to persevere in this endeavor in order to see a positive result.

To summarize the two aspects discussed:
– Incorporating a new habit is not easy, as it requires you to clearly define and understand your goals as well as the reasons behind them.
– Our brains are often resistant to the changes brought about by new habits.

To conclude concisely, there are no miraculous solutions for developing a new habit; it is a challenging process that requires time for the brain to adapt.

However, the simplest approach I would recommend is to:

1) Clearly understand your reasons for wanting to integrate “X” habit.
2) Make it simple and easy to implement.
3) Learn to persevere and cultivate unwavering discipline.
4) Stay vigilant and focused on the habit, particularly during the initial days after its integration into your life.