How to Change Boring Habits

Make a list of good habits. Before you change, you have to figure out which areas of your life you feel are too stiff, in order to find ways to loosen it up. What frameworks do you often repeat?

• Start with waking up in the morning. What do you want to do first thing in the morning? When do you start your day job?
• Bring a notebook to jot down all the things that you find to have become a habit. If you walk to work, do you take the same path every day? How often do you sit in the same place all the time? Always have lunch with a certain type of food? When going to a restaurant always order the same food? Do you always ride on the same bus route? How do you dress?

Identify worries. Often, repetitive behaviors stem from deep-seated anxieties or from some narrow beliefs that have arisen inadvertently. As you begin to recognize the causes of these habits, you can consider changing them. Do you feel nervous when you DO NOT order the drink you always use when you go to a familiar refreshment shop? Or choose to take the bus instead of walking to work? What’s so scary about that idea?

• Write these questions next to the things you do every day, and be as specific as possible. What worries you about sitting next to a stranger and starting a conversation with them? What’s stopping you from going to that newly opened restaurant?
• Ask friends and family for help. Usually your friends know you better than you do yourself. Ask a simple question, “Am I predictable?”. If you suspect you are, they’ve probably noticed some habits of yours that you might not even notice yourself.

Take notes on boring times. Part of that spontaneity is dynamism. During the course of a day, you make a note of times when you just sit around in the house, not knowing exactly what to do, or when you feel bored. What do you choose to do at that time?

• When writing this list, you should also write down your “dream days”. Assuming you have all the means and opportunities, what will you do at that time? What could make your evening perfect after work or school?

Choose behaviors that can be changed. Review your list and choose a habit you want to change. Some habits are very good, because habits can actually help us be more productive and put our mind at ease. But some habits are rooted in a limited belief or anxieties, they make us lazy, unwilling to try to experience new things.

• Specifically, you mark the things that make you feel ashamed. If in your opinion the perfect evening should include dancing, but you often stay home playing games despite feeling ashamed of it, that’s a sign of a habit that can be changed. If you always order latte because it’s the cheapest thing on the menu, why change?