I finally got around to catching up on some blogs and podcasts that I listen to late last week and I realized that two of them seemed to be touching on the same topic, “Habits”.

Now each of them talks about it from different angles but both have made me reflect on the habits I have been trying to break this year.  Or even more specifically some of the good ones I am trying to create this year.  Some people might say well that really sounds like a New Years' resolution, but for me, it is more of a time commitment change in focus that will be ongoing.

This brings me to the first blog that has been actually talking about it all year.  The site is called Break the Twitch and it’s creator Anthony Ongaro does a great job of framing this up in his post a while back called “How I Created Daily Action Steps to Achieve My 2016 Vision (And You Can Too)”.  There is actually a lot of good stuff in there about helping you create a vision for 2016 and follow through with it.  However, based on how I have been changing my habits this year the following quote resonated with me best.

To eliminate a bad habit, we first need to establish a good habit to take its place. - Anthony Ongaro

Then as I was running last outside last week and listening to The Tim Ferriss Episode titled Naval Ravikant on Happiness Hacks and the 5 Chimps Theory.  I would definitely suggest you listen to it as there are lots of good nuggets of information in that podcast.  For me, the reason it really stuck out again was this talk of habits and breaking habits.

Learning how to break habits is an important/great meta skill. - Naval Ravikant

He talked about the power of habits and that after you have broken a habit it helps teach you that all habits can be broken.  In fact, he said he break habits and creates new ones frequently.  One tip he had to break habits is a daily workout as he suggests it is very important to do some kind of physical activity at the same time every day no exception.

He suggests further that it happens in the morning as it will lead to better choices as you have to make sure you get to bed earlier.

I couldn’t agree with him more on the psychology of physical activity and having it be in the morning.  For me, I have been adding a new habit this year of running but not in the morning as he suggests but at night.  This isn’t the most ideal, and it does lead to some of the same things he mentions as leading to better habits all around.

How about you, is there any new habits you are hoping to create in 2016 and in the process remove some bad ones?  I would love to hear about your success so far or what is holding you back in the comments below.