Setting a new habit is one of the hardest things anyone can do. It takes on average 2-3 weeks of doing something everyday, consistently to make it a new full fledged habit. So this week’s blog is aimed at all the students who may have had one too many deep fried Oreos at the state fair. You come back to school and want to get fit again like high school or possibly make an entire life style change (good for you!) Getting to school whether you’re a freshman or upperclassman is a big adjustment that will take time to become a habit once again, so now, is optimal time to throw something else as your schedule is completely different. Luckily, the Weight Room and University Fitness open early and close late, on AVERAGE between the two it’s usually 7am-11pm, plenty of time to fit your schedule!

First, when you finally arrive on campus go ahead and immediately get yourself a membership! ($65/semester or $100/year) that way when the doors open, you’re at the front of the line! Second, get familiar with your facility, this will make your workouts much quicker and easier! FINALLY, find a plan! Meet with a campus personal trainer or find a plan you like and stick to it! That way, you’ll be able to find consistency in your workouts.

Incase my soon to be completed Human Resource Management Degree doesn’t entice you enough to listen to me, I did some research and found the “7 Steps to Developing New Habits” published by Brain Tracy International, with some of my own annotations on how it can fit into a college life. They illustrated the seven things you must do are:

1) Make A Decision

First, make a decision. Decide clearly that you are going to begin acting in a specific way 100% of the time, whenever that behavior is required. For example, if you decide to rise early and exercise each morning, set your clock for a specific time, and when the alarm goes off, immediately get up, put on your exercise clothes and begin your exercise session.

2) Never Allow an Exception to Your New Habit

Second, never allow an exception to your new habit pattern during the formative stages. Don’t make excuses or rationalizations. Don’t let yourself off the hook. If you resolve to get up at 6:00 AM each morning, discipline yourself to get up at 6:00 AM, every single morning until this becomes automatic.

3) Tell Others You Are Practicing a New Behavior

Third, tell others that you are going to begin practicing a particular behavior. It is amazing how much more disciplined and determined you will become when you know that others are watching you to see if you have the willpower to follow through on your resolution.

4) Visualize Your New Habit

Fourth, visualize yourself performing or behaving in a particular way in a particular situation. The more often you visualize and imagine yourself acting as if you already had the new habit, the more rapidly this new behavior will be accepted by your subconscious mind and become automatic.

5) Create an Affirmation

Fifth, create an affirmation that you repeat over and over to yourself. This repetition dramatically increases the speed at which you develop the new habit. For example, you can say something like, “I get up and get going immediately at 6:00 AM each morning!” Repeat these words the last thing before you fall asleep. In most cases, you will automatically wake up minutes before the alarm clock goes off, and soon you will need no alarm clock at all.

6) Resolve to Persist

Sixth, resolve to persist in the new behavior until it is so automatic and easy that you actually feel uncomfortable when you do not do what you have decided to do.

7) Reward Yourself

Seventh, and most important, give yourself a reward of some kind for practicing in the new behavior. Each time you reward yourself, you reaffirm and reinforce the behavior. Soon you begin to associate, at an unconscious level, the pleasure of the reward with the behavior. You set up your own force field of positive consequences that you unconsciously look forward to as the result of engaging in the behavior or habit that you have decided upon.

So with this school year rolling around and you wanting to make a lifestyle change, make sure to follow these tips to a new habit! Good luck this year Warhawks!

“Success is a journey but we treat it like a place and it doesn’t make sense if you don’t you enjoy the ride.”

-Riley Pink