Right now, before you do anything else, I want you to ask yourself: Am I truly committed to doing this? Is this what I really want? Why is this important to me? What are the stakes if I DON’T do it? Why now? How long will I commit to this for?
These are critical questions to ask yourself, because it will help you be clear on why this is important, why you need to do it now, what will happen if you don’t follow through, and when you will know you have completed it.
If you have done your “pre” step, the next part is to create a strategy of the logistics of how you will commit to your daily practice.
These are 6 simple research backed steps to successfully create a daily yoga and meditation habit that will stick so that you can get out of the “effort” and into the automatic stage quicker and with more ease. Let’s use the example of a daily meditation practice.
- Make a plan. Figure out exactly what outcomes you want for your meditation. Then ask yourself logistical questions. What time would I meditate? What type of meditation? How long would I sit for?
- Schedule it in. Scheduling makes it real. We’ve all had the experience of “fitting it in,” which never works. It has good intentions but not much action. For your brain to see it as important, you must schedule it into your life. Then, even if you need to reschedule, your brain will look for opportunities to make it happen.
- Make your Plan B. Ask yourself what obstacles you might encounter and plan for them. This is critical. We have real lives and real obstacles that come up all the time. I might plan to meditate at 6am every day before my family wakes up, but then what do I do when my son wakes up at 5:30am? These are things we need to plan for in advance to keep us on track.
- Gather support. We are way more accountable to others than ourselves. Getting some people to join you in your new habit helps with support and account increasing your likelihood of completing your goal by over 43%. That’s HUGE in the goal setting world. Especially since most 5 day challenges I’ve held has the majority of participants falling off the wagon by day 3, and why the 30 day challenges inside Quick Bliss Yoga have 100% completion rate. Because I put them all in teams, even if they don’t practice everyday, they all practice at least 90% and they all finish. (If you didn’t already know, we do regular 30 day challenges inside QBY to help you strengthen your daily yoga practice)
- Focus on today. The thought of doing something forever or even 30 days can be overwhelming and stressful. It’s too much. Shift your focus to completing today’s practice and then recommit to doing it again tomorrow. It’s way more manageable and you’ll feel more in control.
- Reward yourself daily with praise. Acknowledging that you practice not only makes you feel accomplished and good about yourself ,it rewards you with a sense of completion and gives you the motivation to keep at it tomorrow.
Please excuse me now, I’m heading to my room for my daily meditation! In the meantime, let me know in the comments your best tips of maintaining a regular practice, or which of the tips above you’re most excited to try.