Good habits are essential in being able to live the lives we desire. Still, we tend to approach willpower not as something we can build up and strengthen but, instead, as an innate characteristic that we either have or don't. We further perceive bad habits as reflective of our lack of willpower. But, as many know, it's not so easy to break bad habits or to start new ones, like regular exercise or a daily meditation practice. Too often, attempts to change habits fail. Repeated failures can create the unintended pattern of failing, which leads to losing hope and believing we're incapable of change. So, the first consideration in changing habits is to establish the habit of success! How can you get started? Treat Willpower Like a Muscle The will is like a muscle that needs training to be strengthened. Imagine if you began weightlifting by trying to press 200 pounds! You would certainly fail. But most people set self-improvement goals that are similarly much too…

Nothing is more important in creating optimal health than our habits. We all know that we should be exercising regularly, eating a sensible diet, getting a good amount of sleep, minimizing stress and ideally establishing some kind of stress-reduction practice. It’s the actual doing that’s the problem. Too many lofty goals fizzle out, leaving feelings of shame and incompetence in their wake.One secret to successfully adopting and integrating a good health habit into your life is to put the lofty goal(s) aside for the moment and focus on taking small, but consistent steps in the right direction.See this one-minute TED talk by sociologist Christine Carter, who successfully eased regular running into her life by starting out small. And I mean small. Her initial commitment was one minute a day! But she did it consistently, and gradually it turned into more and more minutes. Consistency was the key. Because every time she put on her running shoes in the morning she etched the new habit…