Building Healthy Habits in a World of Distraction and Impatience

Establishing good habits is a strange thing. Some people are able to get so much done within their day and just know how to develop good habits, while with others, it seems to be different story. They simply do not seem to understand the notion of being efficient with their time and how to establish these habits that will allow them to use their time effectively.

The most common scenario is when someone makes a promise to do something, they get all riled up at the beginning with the idea that the goal will be reached quickly, but when it doesn’t happen, expectations are deflated, motivation is lost, and eventually, this promise becomes as fickle as sand falling through your fingers and they quit. And when this happens over and over again, it’s easy to get frustrated and discouraged.

The good thing about how to establish good habits is that we are able to observe and learn from those who have already done this successfully; no need to reinvent the wheel. Once you establish a routine and incorporate these actions into your life, they become automatic requiring less effort to put forth, both mentally and physically.

All you have to do is look at people like the Greeks living in a village. They have successfully been able to incorporate good habits when it comes to nutrition and socio-communal activities in each other’s lives from generation to generation. The mindset of a healthy lifestyle, which is spearheaded by good habits is instilled from a young age, thus becoming even easier to live that life into adulthood. It is said that by following a particular approach to forming good habits, success is inevitable. You need less and less conscious attention and internal motivation to perform the habit.

What do the Greeks actually do, or what strategies do they have, for building these good habits? Let’s go over the 5 most important ones that have been proven to work and make these good habits stick.

1. Start small and take Baby Steps

When people make a promise to themselves and want to incorporate a lifestyle or mental change into their life, then they want fast results. This means that they will go from 0 to 100 in the blink of an eye. Whether it is exercising more, having a healthy diet, or just be able to read one book a day, you cannot do this overnight. And when they don’t achieve it in a short amount of time, then they get discouraged and quit.

They key to this is to start small and take baby steps. Give yourself a reachable goal that you can obtain. This will allow yourself to achieve and get encouraged rather than the opposite. For example, if you want to run the marathon, start by running half a kilometer, and gradually increase these distances until you reach your final one. Or if you want to switch to a plant-based diet, then incorporate it one or two days of the week into your diet and then slowly increase the days until you reach a full week.

Always focus on establishing the actual habit behavior first. Never increase the effort before it has become a natural part of what you do every day.

2. Get Passionate about your habit

Once you have committed yourself to a habit, and have done it for a while, then it becomes second nature to you and it becomes a routine that you are passionate about. And when you remind yourself of all the effort you have put into attaining that level of commitment, then the passion that drives you will push to not want to let go of a project. Once you become passionate about your habit, then your mentality will be on a different level pushing you to want to maintain that level of passion and investment.

3. Be Consistent and Persistent

This is interlinked with number 2, but it goes more to the pre- to get you to the level of passion you need to keep you going.

To make a project into a habit, you have to be consistent and persistent in your endeavor. Consistency is required in order to establish a routine, and persistence keeps you being consistent. Once a routine is established, then it becomes part of your schedule and your life; it becomes a passion and an investment. The idea is to get to the point where the project becomes second nature to you, which then becomes a habit.

4. Create your Environment and surround yourself with Supporters

One thing that is really noticeable in the Greek village is that the environment plays a huge role in how people act and react to different trigger events. What they surround themselves with is what shapes the people’s habits. In other words, your environment drives your behavior.

For example, by having some cookies/sweets out on the table, you may just eat some because they are there, as opposed to not having that trigger in front of you and going to grab a fruit or something else much healthier to eat. If you shape your environment to your desired habits, then you will see great strides to establishing your good habit.

And if you live with people (or not), then the people that are around us should support what you are doing. Studies have shown that if someone in your circle doesn’t support you, or does the complete opposite of your desired habit, then you are 61% more likely to mimic that person and stray away from your desired habit. And that is why in the Greek village, people tend to stick with people that are similar goal/habit orientated with them, but on a whole, societal norms in the village are quite similar with each other and thus, it is easier to have a support group that will help you.

Thus, if you want things to happen in your life, but you’re surrounded by pessimists who drag you down, it’s time to create a support group who inspires you and picks you back up when you fail.

5. Change your Mindset and Pre-Commit

Whenever you’re creating a new habit, adopt a growth mindset.

The growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way, everyone can change and grow through application and experience.

The first step is to start believing that you can step out of it and that with the growth mindset it is possible to achieve things. Start seeing challenges as opportunities that are there to experiment with, to analyze your mistakes, and a way to learn to be patient.

Once you’ve put this into your mind and have a desired habit, commit to it and want to achieve it. This will be the difference between achieving your desired result and giving up.

Final Thoughts

Don’t let all this overwhelm you. It is a guide to help you have a plan in place that will ensure you attack your next habit goal the right way. Give yourself time (a few weeks or a couple of months depending on the difficulty of the habit) for your new behavior to become part of your normal routine. Be patient with yourself and celebrate the small wins.

Want to Learn More?

If you enjoyed this article, go and check out my book: SLOW Life Diet — Greek Village Living: The Pathway to a Healthier Lifestyle, Healthy Habits, and a Happier You.

It provides a detailed explanation of this slow living lifestyle and provides a guide to help you on your journey in adopting the habits and lifestyle into your own life.

The knowledge of the Ancient Greeks had been passed down from generation to generation until their eating rituals and habits became part of the societal norm in Greece. These can be seen more so in the Greek villages as these villages have many similarities as how Ancient Greeks city-states were formed and how the people lived. They lived off the land and ate what the land provided. As a result, their nutrition was very healthy. As time progressed, the nutritional habits merged with the way of life which slowed down and started to focus on self and societal care. And finally, now, through this book about Greek village living, the secrets of this knowledge on nutritional and lifestyle habits that have been passed down and now practiced everyday are revealed.