Did you know that not everyone spends time thinking about habits they want to change? I was shocked to find this out! I thought, ‘maybe these people are in denial’. Or ‘maybe they’ve already arrived at perfection’. Then the thought ‘what’s wrong with me?’ began to surface. Why do I care so much about my habits?

Which are you? Obsessed with changing habits or not aware that habits are a thing? Perhaps somewhere in between? Wherever you find yourself, there is great power in habit.

Many people who come to me for coaching are aware of an area they want to change but experience a sense of being stuck; not sure how to start the change process they’re desiring. Those I’ve been fortunate to work with I encourage with the truth

Awareness is the first step to creating change. Click To Tweet

If you have a growing awareness about an area you want to change in your life, that can be enough to get you moving. Identifying what’s in the way of moving forward, and deciding what the first action step needs to be, often leads us to identifying and dealing with habits. Sometimes it’s our habits that keep us from enacting lasting change.

Two years ago I read a fascinating book titled, The Power of Habit, written by Charles Duhigg. In his first book, Duhigg a business journalist, tells stories to help those of us who are non-scientific types understand how and why habits are formed, how habits can be changed and he shares elements of scientific research regarding habits of individuals, companies and societies.

Humans are wired for developing habits. Eating and sleeping are two habits that the human body can’t function well without for very long; what, when, where and how are ways over which individuals have influence on those basic habits. I loved learning about how habit formation occurs but even more powerful is the knowledge of steps that can lead to lasting change.

I’m going to presume you have faced an area in life where you’d like to make changes. What if you can identify what are the 4 parts of your habit and that changing one of the parts could change the habit? Of course there is more to it than just the knowing, but in The Power of Habit you can learn how to identify the parts of your habit and how to effect lasting change.

What is a habit you’ve been struggling to change?