Creative Habit Naming - Part 1

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I’ve recently acquired yet another healthy habit - doing ab crunches just before my morning shower. I’m so happy with my results that I just have to share with you some of the methodology used in the process of working this habit out. Particularly, I would like to talk about the art of creative habit naming, which I personally find incredibly rewarding.

Everyone faces a moment where a particular habit stops being attractive up to the point of giving it up. There are obviously different reasons for ending up like this, but mastering your habits can get a whole lot easier by employing a very simple yet useful technique: creative habit naming.

I haven’t seen anything written on this topic, and so mostly I had to try different approaches myself. If you know of any author covering the topic of creative habit naming in a book or a blog, please let me know.

The idea is pretty simple: when you’re working out a particular habit, every little helps to stay motivated and interested enough. When it comes to mastering habits, creative habit naming is a very effective way of making your life easier.

By picking a thoughtful name for your new habit, you can dramatically improve your chances of mastering it, simply because every time you come back to thoughts of the habit, you will reiterate the motivational name you gave it and automatically gain benefit from this.

Naming a habit may not seem terribly important, but it actually means a lot and holds a key to your success. What I offer you is not a revolutionary new approach which will make your habit feel easier to master, but it will make it seem easier and appear more attractive, which will help you stay on top of things.

I’ve identified three main directions in creative habit naming: motivation, progress tracking and positive affirmations.

Today, I’m going to cover the first topic - getting motivation through naming your habits wisely and creatively.

You can’t have too much motivation. No matter what you do, you and your positive outcome will only benefit from any motivation you find in and for the process.

I find it very easy to name my habits in such a way that they become quite motivational. This helps me benefit from the habit even more, and generally makes my experience of working out a habit a much easier and more pleasant process.

Here are the three most useful ways to name your habit and get additional motivation from doing this:

Goal Statement

This is one of the easiest way to stay motivated: always remember your goal. If it’s an impressive enough a goal, you will get additional pleasure in repeating it every time you work on your habit, trust me!

It really is up to you to decide what your habits naming style is going to be, you can be funny, serious, playful, cheerful - you name it. Anything goes, as long as you’re clearly stating your goal.

Here are just a few examples of using goal statements in naming a habit:

• Enjoying life on a daily basis, no matter what.
• Becoming a better father to your kids
• Getting fit in an easy and healthy way

Major focus

Another aspect of naming your habits for motivation is maintaining a focus. In many cases, it’s too subtle a difference from stating your goal, but you can actually use your habit’s name to serve both of these purposes. For example:

• Becoming indecently rich while not killing yourself with work.
• Meeting new people while not forgetting about the friends you already have
• Building a better relationship with your partner by paying more attention and keeping your own promises.

Benefits and value

This is the last highly motivational way of naming a habit I want to cover today. It is aimed to remind you of why your habit is so cool and what exactly you are getting from regularly committing to it.

Here are just a few examples:

• Learn a new language so that you can enjoy talking to natives when travelling.
• Getting fit to enjoy a healthier and therefore longer life
• Read more books to grow personally and gain knowledge

Have I left something out? Please leave your thoughts on this topic in comments area, I would live to learn your approaches to creative habit naming. Thanks in advance!

Related Articles:

• 3 Golden Rules of Goal Setting
• Take Control of Your Habits
• Know Your Goals

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Posted in Goal Setting, Mastering Habits, Personal Development | Gleb Reys @ November 15th, 2006