If you Change your Identity then it is easier to Change your Habits
James Clear
While reading the book ‘Atomic Habits’ for the second time, I came across this concept of Identity Change. I didnt even knew if I had read it the first time. Maybe I was not conscious enough to notice it. If you want a summary of Atomic Habits, do click on the link here to my blog post.
It left an impact because I on the lookout for ways and means to change my habits. I am struggling with some of my bad habits and that is the reason why I picked up Atomic Habits the second time.
So it said that Habits Change comes from identity Change.
Why Identity Change Leads to Change in Habits? Sharing my Experience.
Although this concept was not new to me and I had earlier seen people do something like this but I was intrigued to learn more on it.
My Learnings are below:
We become what we say again and again to ourselves. Even if it is False at the outset, we try to mould our behaviour based on these statements. Maybe the start might be a bit bumpy, but eventually we will fall in place. In line with what we are saying.
My example comes from my struggle with habit of keeping myself fit. I have always consider myself fit. Although I have a Normal BMI, I have a ton of bad habits that might damage my future health scenario. These included munching on snacks, getting outside food whenever I am hungry or spending unnecessary time on social media in a bad posture.
Keeping that in mind, I would want myself to keep myself fit by consistently following a fitness regimen and doing things that a fit person would do.
How I Implemented It
So when I came across this idea of Identity change, I started repeating myself with a sentence ‘I am a fit person’. This sentence would repeat whenever I was about to do a bad habit. Since I knew what a bad habit would look like, it became an instant call sign for me.
I must disclose that not all the times it was a success. I can say that I succeeded 80% of the times. Overall I was quite satisfied with the idea of repeating myself this sentence and let my psychology do the rest.
One thing that I did notice was that, I did not have too many sentences at one time. For eg. I am a fit person would encompass doing exercises regularly, eating only healthy food, I limit my social media intake.
Also I didnt do too many things at one time. I am facing challenge in my writing habit, my planning habit but I didnt acted on it right away. I think by dividing my challenges in many small parts and using the identity change idea for just one part will help me deliver the results.
I hope that you would have got ideas on how to change your bad habits if you have any and using identity change to over come them.
Share it with me and I will response if I can.
Regards,
Sarathi!
P.S.: If you wish to learn more on Identity Change, you can visit this website by James Clear to know more.