6 Proven Ways To Make New Habits Stick 6条可以让习惯成自然的方法 Not long ago, my daily life was in really bad shape. I was sleeping anywhere between 3am to 6am on average, and on the really bad days I wouldn’t sleep at all. Because I slept late, I would wake up late. Subsequently, my day would start off late, which meant I was busy “playing catch-up” and being late for my appointments. My diet was horrendous – I was eating lots of junk food and snacks at night to stay awake. It got worse month after month, and I didn’t want to continue on. I needed to revamp my lifestyle！
不久以前，我的生活一塌糊涂。在凌晨3点到6点之间我不定时的睡觉，而在最糟糕的日子里我根本无法入睡。因为睡得晚，所以我起的也晚，然后导致的就是我的一天开始的也晚，这就意味着我的一天都是在赶工作，约会也总是迟到。不仅如此，我吃的东西也让人想象不到——为了熬夜我要吃大量的垃圾食品和零食。这种情况不停的形成恶性循环，我也终于不愿再这么继续下去了，我要彻底改变我的生活方式！ I picked out 9 habits I wanted to cultivate for the next 21 days, such as: (1) Sleeping at/before 12am, (2) Waking up at 5am, (3) Reading a book or listening to a podcast at least once a day, (4) Meditating, (5) Being timely for my appointments (6) Even eating a raw food diet! #6 might be a bit of an overkill for some people, but hey – since it was just for 21 days, I thought I might as well try something different for a change. 我挑选了9个接下来的21天我想培养的习惯，比如说：（1）最晚12点一定要睡觉（2）5点钟准时起床（3）至少拿出一天看看书、听听广播（4）沉思（5）约会时提前一点到（6）吃生食。这六条对于有些人来说可能觉得有些受不了，但是又想到只是一个21天的计划，所以我觉得不妨尝试一些更与众不同的。 I’m extremely happy to report that nearly all my habits have stuck. My life has become significantly organized. I wake up early, I get to all my appointments early/on time, I get my work done, I meditate, I’m eating raw, and I sleep on time. Out of the 9 habits, 8 habits stuck, while 1 habit was let go because I realized it wasn’t something I wanted to work on for now. Compared to my previous lifestyle, this has been a total 180 degree turnaround. 当看到我的新习惯一个个都迸发出来后我打心里开心。我的生活瞬间变得井井有条。我每天都起得很早，约会也都准时或者提前到，每天要做的工作都能按时做完，还可以停下来好好反省一下自己，而且我开始吃生食了，并且晚上也能按时睡觉。跟我之前的生活方式比起来，现在可以说是焕然新生，来了个180度大转变。 Some people might think this positive change is exclusive to me, that perhaps I have some incredible determination, persistence or discipline to pull this off. I don’t want to disappoint, but it’s not. In fact, truth be told, I consider myself a very undisciplined person. What I do have though, are 6 specific tips that have been critical in enabling my lifestyle change. These have helped my new habits stick. 有些人可能认为是因为我比其他人有更坚定的决心、意志力并能严格遵守去克服重重困难才做的到这些。我不想否定这种说法，但是事实却真的不是这个样子。其实真实的情况是，我觉得我自己平时是一个混乱无纪律的人。但是我还是能成功是因为我有6条特别的方法帮助我彻底改变了我的生活，也是它们让我的新习惯牢牢扎根在我的生活里。 If you have been trying to cultivate new habits with little success, then you might find these very useful. These habits are not rocket science – they are easy to understand, apply and have worked tremendously for me. 如果你也在尝试培养新习惯，但是结果却总是不尽如人意的话，那么着6点对你来说应该会有所帮助。这些方法并不是什么复杂的事，它们都很容易理解、做起来也很方便，不仅如此，在我身上它们发挥了奇效。 Here they are: 让我们来看看吧： 1. Know the Real Reason Why Your Habit Didn’t Stick Previously 1. 找出你以前的习惯为什么不能持之以恒的真正原因 Address the root cause of the issue, not the effect. Desperately battling with yourself every morning to wake up at 5:30am is to address the effect. Understanding why you keep failing to wake up at 5:30am is to address the cause. 要找出坚持不下来的根本原因，而不是只看到它所表现出来的现象。比如早上5点30你每天跟自己做激烈的思想斗争要起床，这只是一种由原因所产生的表面现象。而了解你到底为什么总是没办法5点30起来才是根本原因。 For example, I couldn’t wake up early for the longest time ever, and all I kept doing is to keep trying and failing the next day. This would continue on for several months until I finally realized it was just going nowhere. I began to start analyzing my situation to understand why I couldn’t wake up early, through a self-questioning process. I probed into the situation, and asked myself “why” this was happening to drill down to the root cause. 打个比方，曾经我也一度有很长的时间没办法早起，而我在做的就是继续每天努力着早起然后再失败。这种情况持续了好几个月，直到最终我终于觉醒了，知道再这样下去不会有任何进展。于是我开始分析我的情况，通过自我反省找出到底为什么我早上没办法早起的原因。我好好的研究了我的情况，然后问自己起不来这个事情“为什么”会发生，由此更深一步去找出根源。 Below is an example of the drilling process: 以下就是深入探究、寻找本因的方法的例子： Why can’t I wake up early? -为什么我早上没办法早起？ Because I’m tired. -因为我很累 Why am I tired? -为什么我会累？ Because I didn’t have enough sleep. -因为睡觉时间还不够。 Why didn’t I have enough sleep? -为什么会没睡够？ Because I slept late. -因为我睡得太晚。 Why did I sleep late? -为什么睡那么晚？ Because I had too many things to do. -因为有太多事情要做。 Why did I have so many things to do? -为什么有那么多事情要做？ Because I can’t finish them. -因为我做不完。 Why can’t I finish them? -为什么会做不完？ Because I schedule more tasks than I can accomplish for the day. -因为我给自己制定的计划任务超过了我可以在今天完成的。 Getting down to this root cause helped me realize two things (1) All our habits are tied to one another (sleeping time, waking time, timeliness) (2) I underestimate the time taken to finish the tasks (and subsequently overestimate how fast I can do those tasks). Many times, I would target to finish multiple projects in 1 day, which wasn’t possible at all. 在处理这个根本原因时我明白了两件事，（1）所有的习惯都是环环相扣的（比如，晚上睡觉的时间，早上起床的时间，时间不够）（2）我低估了我要完成一项工作所需的时间（也就是高估了我做完这些工作的时间）。很多时候我的计划都是在一天内做很多项目，但是这根本不可能。 This meant that to make my waking early habit stick, (1) I need to change habits that are related to waking early (see Tip #2) and (2) I have to be more realistic in my planning. Rather than stuff in so many tasks for a day and not finishing them, now I go for a challenging yet achievable schedule and complete my tasks accordingly. 这也就意味着，我要坚持早起的这个习惯的话，我就要做到：（1）我要改变跟早起有关的习惯（2）制定的计划要更符合自己的情况。与其每天要做的事情堆得满满的做也做不完，现在我能按照一份有挑战性的却可以做得完的计划来完成我的工作。 Keep asking why to drill down to the root reason. Once you get to the real cause, you can immediately resolve the issue. 一直为自己“为什么”找出根本原因。一旦你知道了真正的原因是什么，问题马上就迎刃而解了。 2. Pick Habits that Reinforce Each Other 2. 坚持那些有密切关联的习惯 Our habits are not standalone; they are interlinked. Some habits have a stronger linkage with each other than others. For example, sleeping early and waking early are obviously linked to each other, while sleeping early and reading a book a day might not be so closely related. If you want to cultivate a habit, identify the other habits that are tied with it and make a holistic change. These habits will reinforce each other to help make the change seamless. 我们的习惯并不是孤立的，它们互相之间是有联系的。有些习惯相互之间的联系比与另外一些习惯密切得多。比如说，早睡合早起这两者的联系显而易见，但是早睡和每天读一本书之间可能就没那么密切的关联了。如果你想坚持一个习惯，那么就要格外关注跟它紧密相连的另一个习惯，这样才会有一个全局的改善。这些习惯会互相增强对方的作用，让你的改变也一环扣一环，天衣无缝。 For example, my new habits to: (a) Wake up early at 5am (b) Sleep before 12am (c) Be on time (d) Meditate (e) Have raw food diet are all interlinked. 举个例子，我的新习惯是：（a）早上5点钟起床（b）晚上12点之前睡觉（c）准时做完该做的事（d）要自我反思（e）吃生食，这些习惯都是有密切联系的。 Waking up early means I more time to do my tasks, which helps me to sleep earlier in the night. This helps me to wake up early the next day. 早上能起得早就意味着我有更多的时间昨晚自己的工作，这样一来，晚上我就可以早点睡觉，而这又可以让我第二天早上早点起来。 Being on time helps me to get my tasks completed on time, which helps me adhere to the day’s schedule. This means my sleeping time and subsequently my waking time does not get affected. 准时做完该做的事可以让我暗示做完工作，而这样就能让我完成我指定的每日计划，这就意味着我的晚上睡觉时间和早上起床时间都不会受影响。 Meditating clears out mental clutter and reduces the amount of sleep I need. Usually I sleep about pro6-10 hours, but on the nights I meditate, I require about 5-6 hours. 沉思可以将脑子里的杂乱思想都清理干净，也可以帮助我减少睡眠时间。通常我都睡6-10小时，但是在沉思的那天，我可以只睡5-6小时。 Switching to a raw vegan diet has helped to increase my mental clarity, which meant I don’t need to sleep as much as before. I’m not saying that you need to go raw vegan just to cultivate a habit of sleeping/waking early, just that I noticed this particular benefit when I switched to this diet. You can sleep and wake up early perfectly fine by changing other habits. 坚持简单的生食素食让我拥有一个清晰的头脑，这也就是说我不用像平时一样睡那么多觉。我的意思不是你为了养成早睡早起的习惯就一定要吃素，只是我发现我在这么做的时候受益良多。 3. Plan For Your Habits (Right down to the timings) 3. 为你的习惯定一个计划（具体什么时间到什么时间做什么） Having a schedule lets you know when you are on or off track for your habits. For the 1st day of my new lifestyle, I did a full-day planning and continued thereafter for all other days. 定一个计划表可以让你清楚的知道你什么时候该干什么。我新生活开始的第一天就制定了一个全天计划，而之后的日子里也都一直奉行。 What I do is this: 我是这样做的： On the night before, put together a list all the tasks I need to get done for the next day. This includes what’s on my calendar (I use Gcal). 在前一天晚上，把第二天要做完的所有事情列一张清单，然后把它们都记录在日历上（我用的是google日历的日程表） Batch them into (a) Major projects, (b) Medium sized tasks and (c) Small, administrative activities 把所有工作分成（a）重要工作（b）一般重要的事（c）其他琐碎杂事 Slot them into my schedule for the day. Major projects would have most amount of time assigned. The principle I usually go by is 60-30-10 (% time spent) for a-b-c groups respectively. 然后就可以开始把它们放进我的时间表里去了。要给重要工作留出最多的时间。我经常使用的分配比例是a：b：c分别是60：30：10（%所花的时间） Be aware of how much time each task requires. If it helps, most of the time we underestimate the time we need. Make it a realistic yet challenging time to work towards. Usually I assign a 5-10 minutes buffer time in between tasks to account for the transition from 1 task to the next. 要注意做每件事情需要的时间。这很重要，因为大部分情况下我们都会低估我们真正需要的时间。要保持效率就要让计划变得更实用，通常在做完一件事情转到下一件之前，我会加入一个5-10分钟的缓冲时间。 Assign exact timings for when each task starts and ends. For example, 9am to 10:30am for Project A, 12:30-1:30pm for lunch, 6:30-7:30pm for commute. 准确的制定一件事情开始和结束的时间点。比如说，9：00-10：00做A这件事，12:30-13:30吃午饭，18:30-19:30是回家的路上时间。 If there are more tasks to be done than my schedule allows, I’ll deprioritize the unimportant ones and put them off to another day. 如果要做的事情比我时间表上的要多，那我就会把不是很重要的事情放到另外一天时间充裕再做。 With all this planning done, when the next day comes all I have to do is to follow the schedule to a tee. I keep a close watch on the timing to ensure I’m on time. 5 minutes before it’s up, I do a wrap up and start transiting to the next task on the list. 制定好了这份计划之后，第二天我要做的就是严格的遵守。我会时刻关注时间，到时见之前5分钟，我就会准备一下做下面一件事情。 The beauty of having a precise schedule is it helps me know exactly when I’m taking more time than desired, and this helps me work on being more efficient. There are some timings which absolutely have to be protected, such as my sleeping/waking times and appointment times, so in that sense the time allocated on my tasks are fixed. That means I have to work more efficiently. 严格遵守时间的好处就是不让我超时，从而让我更有效率的做事。有些时间不能少，就像睡觉时间和约会时间，因此，留给我完成工作的时间就有限，所以我必须提高效率。 It may seem like a hassle, but it really isn’t. It just takes me about 10 minutes to get each day’s schedule done. Not surprisingly, I have allocate time in my daily schedule to do my scheduling for the next day (11-11:10pm). All you have to do is create a template once, and then you can reapply this template for the other days. There will be similar items across all out days that can be reapplied, such as waking/breakfast/commuting/working/dinner/sleeping times, so it’s really very straight forward. 听上去制定时间表这可能很难，但实际上一点也不。我每天只要花10分钟就够了，而对于制定时间表的时间当然也是会写在时间表上的（23:00-23:10）。你所要做的只是做一个模板出来，以后你就可以一直用了。有些事情日以及日的重复，就像起床，吃早饭，上班路上时间，工作时间，吃晚饭，睡觉时间，所以其实做起来很简单。 If you don’t plan for when exactly to get the habit done and instead just arbitrarily say that you want it to be done sometime today, then there’s a very high chance it might not get done. This is why most people’s habits don’t stick. Other things will invariably keep popping in and you’d engage them without realizing it and throw your schedule off track. From there, other things get pushed back and you never get to carry out your habit. 如果你不明确的说明什么时候你要把这个事情做完，而只是随意的说今天一定会做完，那么很有可能你今天是不可能完成的。这也就是为什么那么多人有新习惯却总是没办法持之以恒的原因。而每天有似乎总是有意想不到的事情冒出来，让你不去顾及你的时间表，这样你的新习惯就被这些事件有打压了下去。 4. Stay Ahead of Your Schedule 4. 领先你的计划一步 I found it’s extremely motivating to stay ahead. Waking up early at 5am means I’m ahead of most people in the world (and myself too, if I were to stick to my old schedule), and that motivates me to work fast and stay ahead. What helps me continue this momentum is that I end my tasks earlier and start the next task before the scheduled timing. By ensuring I stay ahead of my schedule, I’m naturally motivated to work on all the things I have planned, including my habits. There’s no resistance to get them started at all. 能始终保持积极性的办法就是始终走在计划的前面。早上5点起床就让我走在了世界上大部分人的前面（当然也包括以前一塌糊涂的我自己），而这给了我一种快点工作、始终走在前面的动力。什么能持续给我这种那动力呢？就是我能比计划表上的时间更快做完一件事情，然后开始做下一件。知道了自己始终走在计划表的前面，我就自然而然的对要做的所有事都斗志满满，包括我的新习惯。这样对开始一个新习惯也就不会有任何抵触和难处。 If a task is taking more time than needed, then I make a choice. Either I: 如果一项任务需要的时间比我预计要多，那我会做一个选择，或者我会： Hurry up and get it done 加油，抓紧！快点把它做完！ Deprioritize the unnecessary or 把不重要的事情先不做了，或者 Borrow time out for my later tasks to continue working on the current one. This also means I have to work faster for the remainder of the day. 向我之后要做的事情借时间来把手头上这件做完，而这也意味着之后我依然需要快马加鞭。 This decision-making process is important, because otherwise you will end up playing catch-up for the rest of the day, which affects all your planned habits/activities. Subsequently, it also affects your will to maintain your habits. Stay ahead of your schedule and you will find it easier to stay motivated. 做决定的过程很重要，因为一旦选择错误，你这一天在剩下来的时间里又要不停地追赶计划表了，这会对你的习惯和要做的事都造成影响。随即而来的是，这也会动摇你坚持你习惯的意志。比你的计划提前一步，你会时刻活力四射。 5. Track Your Habits 5. 做习惯的反馈 Tracking keeps you accountable to your habits. I have a whiteboard in my bedroom which I use to track my habits. On the whiteboard, I drew a large table, split by days (21 days to cultivate a new habit) and by habits. For the days where I do the habit, I will give it a check. For the days I don’t, I make a cross. It’s very satisfying to do the checks every time you finish a habit! You can also track your habits on paper or in your computer. 反馈是对你的习惯负责的一种表现。我房间里有一块白板，专门是反省我的习惯所用。我在白板上画了一个表格，然后横列和竖列分别是天数（养成新习惯的21天）和习惯。我遵守习惯的时候就会在相应的地方打一个勾，没有遵守就会打叉。每当按照习惯做事、看到一个个勾挂在白板上就会心满意足。同样，你也可以在纸上或者电脑上记录你的习惯坚持成果。 Here are some great habit trackers online: 下面是几个不错的在线做习惯反馈的网站： Habit Forge – Tracks new habits through a 21-day period. If you miss the habit for 1 day, it’ll restart. HabitForge -这个网站会追踪记录你21天内习惯的遵守表现，如果你有一天没有做到，它就会重新开始记录。http://www./ Rootein – Unlike Habit Forge, this is an ongoing habit tracker. There is also a mobile version for you to track your habits on the go. Rootein -不同于第一款，这个网站做的是一个不间断的习惯记录，会为你准备一个机动的版本追踪你的习惯遵守效果。http:/// Joe’s Goals – Same as Rootein. There’s an option to place multiple checks on the same goal for extra-productive days. Joe’s Goals-和第二个类似，有一个可以对一个目标多重检验的功能。http:/// 6. Engage People Around You 6.和周围让周围的人也加入进来 Engagement can occur on 2 levels – (a) Active engagement, where you inform your friends who might be interested in and cultivate the habit together with them or (b) Passive engagement, where you let others know about your plans and having them morally support you. 参与有两种表现——（1）积极参与，把你的计划告诉其他人，跟和你有同样兴趣的朋友一起培养你们的习惯（2）被动参与，你告诉他人你的计划，仅仅得到他们的支持。 I had both forms of support in my habit change. 2 days before I started my lifestyle revamp program, I posted an article on my blog, The Personal Excellence Blog, on the new 21-day Lifestyle Revamp Program I was taking on. I wrote in detail about the rationale behind the program, the benefits, the habits I was taking on and how I was going to achieve my goals. I also invited them to join me too in cultivating new habits. Much to my pleasant surprise, many readers responded in enthusiasm on new habits they wanted to cultivate and joined me in the 21-days of change. 在我改变习惯的这段时间里，这两种状态我都有所体验。在我开始改变的2天前，我在博客上写了一篇有关21天我要革新我的生活状态的文章，其中我详细的阐述了这个计划的基本原理、益处、我要坚持的习惯以及具体要怎样做。同样，我邀请博客上的好友跟我一起来培养新习惯。出乎我意料的是，很多读者都表示很有兴趣，他们也愿意跟我一起开始一段21天的改变。 For my raw food diet, I told my mom that I’m just eating fruits and salads for the next 3 weeks, and she began to stock up the house with fruits like bananas, grapes and strawberries. In fact, I just finished a box of strawberries from typing this post. Yesterday, I went to watch How To Train A Dragon with my friend, and filled him in on my raw food diet. He then kept a look out for the restaurants we could dine in for that night. In the end I had warm baby spinach salad for dinner. My first time having it – can’t say I like it, but it’s nice for a change :D. 关于我吃生吃素的问题，我告诉了我妈妈接下来的2个星期我只吃水果和沙拉，于是她就开始疯狂的买水果，像香蕉、葡萄、草莓什么的。事实上，在写这篇文章的时候我只吃了一盒草莓。昨天我跟朋友一起去看了一部电影，然后说服他跟我一起吃生食。然后他恋恋不舍的看了看本来那晚我们要去吃饭的餐厅。后来我美美的吃了一顿菠菜沙拉。这是我第一次吃，不能说有多喜欢它，但是这就是我的改变。 Don’t feel that you’re alone in your habit change because you aren’t. There are always people around you who are more than willing to support you. 不要觉得在你的坚持习惯之路上你形单影只，因为有很多人都跟你一起在走。你身边的许多人都会加入你而不只是支持你。 Final Words 结束语 My new habits have pretty much been integrated into my daily life now. Everything runs on auto-pilot and it feels like I’ve been doing this for a long while. My personal tips above have worked tremendously for myself, so while they may look simple and straightforward, don’t underestimate them. Try them out for yourself and let me know how your new habits are coming along for you！ 我的新习惯现如今已经跟我的生活渐渐融为一体了。一切都变得顺其自然，就像这件事长久以来我一直在做一样。以上的小贴士让我的生活发生了巨大的改变，尽管这六条建议很简单也很直白，但是千万不要小看它们。自己来试试看，有机会也告诉我你的新习惯进展如何吧！ |
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