Sustaining Your Healthy Habits and Routines for Long-Term Success

In the journey of personal growth and positive transformation, the initial enthusiasm that accompanies the adoption of new habits can be exciting. Yet, as time progresses and life happens, many can find it challenging to sustain their new habits or routines. At these moments, we all face the test of commitment and the need for resilience emerges. In the previous article, Building Productive and Supportive Habits and Routines: Changing How You Do Things, I covered how you can establish the new habits and routines you need to achieve your goals. Sustaining them becomes the final, and perhaps most important, step to reaching that pinnacle. In this final article in this series, we delve into practical and proven strategies to not only initiate positive changes, but how to navigate the complexities of sustaining them. From the science behind habit perseverance to actionable tips for staying on course, we'll explore a ways to foster habits that endure and contribute to lasting personal success.

You cannot talk about sustaining habits without reviewing the habit loop itself. Coming back to the foundation of cue, routine, reward is a critical reinforcement. It is what habits are built upon. You can control each of those steps, when you follow through on the steps from the first two articles. Sustaining them comes down to recognizing and continuing to manage those components as things change around you. Cues will shift over time. The ability to complete the routine may shift, and the rewards can feel different. Maintenance on each will help ensure that you remain on track for why you set out to build them in the first place.

Healthy Habit Maintenance

Just as you review your goals, reviewing your habits and routines is a must. You likely do not need to do this daily or even weekly as you would your goals, but monthly and certainly quarterly in conjunction with your goals will ensure you are not deviating from your desired path. Testing your cue, routine, reward steps as mentioned above is a big part of that review process. The other essential element is challenging whether what was once a positive habit has shifted into something that is working against you. It is also a good time to ensure no new unseen habits have crept into your daily routines. It can be easy to unconsciously make shifts that work against what you are hoping to accomplish. I find this happens more often than I would like to admit. Suddenly, what seemed like a sustained healthy eating habit has slightly morphed to allow a cookie to seem like a safe addition. I had missed that what was meant to be a one-time treat suddenly has become an afternoon activity. Your review is also the time to stop or eliminate habits or routines that no longer suit you. Seasons of life change, projects get completed, and goals are achieved that allow you to explore new habits that will take you to the next level. These are a healthy part of habit maintenance.

Review Your Why

At some point, we built this habit and set a goal for a reason. It can be easy to forget that at times. The best way to sustain new habits is to remind yourself regularly why you established it in the first place. Any time I find myself questioning the earlier morning alarm to allow for exercising, I recall writing down the initial reason for exercising. It makes me feel better, gives me immediate energy, and provides mental clarity. Regardless of how many days I have done nearly the exact same routine, I still have to remind myself why I do it. And, it never fails that as soon as I have completed even a short session, I feel exactly what I captured many years ago about why this was important. My exercise is not just a health benefit, it is a personal support activity for setting up my day to be a positive one.

Science Says…

Sustaining your habits may be as much about science as your hard work and efforts. There is a lot of action happening behind the scenes when we talk about action, behaviors, habits, and outcomes. Knowing how some of this works will give you an advantage in staying ahead of your habits.

Here is a look at a few basic science facts that help in habit formation and sustaining them. Neurotransmitters such as dopamine and serotonin also play a role in habit formation. Dopamine is released when we experience pleasure, and it reinforces behaviors that lead to pleasure. Serotonin, on the other hand, is released when we experience satisfaction, and it reinforces behaviors that lead to satisfaction. As you can imagine, creating opportunities for dopamine and serotonin production is the way to get your body to celebrate your habit successes. That may be useful in removing a form of resistance you feel when trying to build new habits and how you can maintain them. If your body begins to sense the cues for something it likes (and will produce dopamine), it will continue to push you towards that activity. It also knows completing that task will provide a hit of serotonin as well, so the incentive is high.

This works for all of your activity throughout the day, thus a reason to build more and more habits. I speak of maintaining a gratitude journal, or showing thanks to people frequently. The benefit of these same chemicals are involved in that. Telling someone you appreciate their hard work and what it means to you is going to generate some dopamine. Seeing them be excited and appreciative of your kind words will also produce serotonin. The best part is, BOTH of you experience these chemical lifts. Everyone wins with a gratitude habit.

I find habits and routine to be a most interesting subject. They are such a core part of who we are and what we do, yet they can go unseen, unnoticed, and unappreciated by so many for extended periods of time. Our habits and routines ultimately define who we are. They are the framework for our leadership. It is also how we can continue to improve and grow. We are not servants to our habits, we can control them and steer them to what we need and want. It is a cool convergence of science, self-awareness, the desire for improvement, and seeking achievement that make habits and routines so intriguing. This is a case of “the more we know, the more we grow.” Hopefully, this series of articles will spur your interest to explore more into the subject (I know it has for me). They can serve as encouragement to dive a little deeper into your own habits and routines to make the adjustments that will take you where you want to go. On the dawn of a new year, this is the perfect time to evaluate the small things that make be holding you back from achieving big things in the year ahead.

What steps will you take to ensure you sustain the new habits you build in the weeks and months ahead?

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