With just 2 months left in 2008, our End 08 Great Challenge should have us all prepared to start 09 Feeling Fine. So far we have challenged everyone (including ourselves) to Conquer the Clutter, spend some extra Face Time with the Kids, Fix Our Finances, and Fall Into Cooking.

The End 08 Great challenge this month is New Habit November. This month will be the perfect opportunity to really focus on developing that new habit we’ve wanted to incorporate in our lives. Sometimes it’s easy to just put the new habit desire on the back-burner in favor of sticking with routine. So let’s all challenge ourselves this month to veer from the course enough to form a new, positive habit.

For those of you joining us in the New Habit November challenge, you’ve probably chosen a new habit you’d like to incorporate in your life and begun implementing it in your daily activities. If you’re anything like me, that’s the easy part. So how do we move past the honeymoon-stage with a new habit and make it actually stick? What is the best way to make a new habit a normal part of the routine?

Because I’ve always with this aspect of a new habit, I’ve done some research on the subject. Here are the top 5 tips that I’ve found.

1. Consistency, consistency, consistency. There is no better way to make a habit stick than to actually do it consistently every day.
2. Keep it simple. Start with a small aspect of a bigger project and make that a habit for 30 days straight before moving up to the next level. Aim to high, and your chances of failure increase.
3. Put it on paper. Write down what you want your new habit to be, reasons why you’re implementing it in your life, and any tricks you’ve found to make it easier to stick with it. Refer to that paper as often as needed for encouragement. And keep it in a place where you are bound to see it often.
4. Remind yourself with triggers. If your new habit is to sit with all of your children for at least 30 minutes a day and engage in an activity everyone can enjoy together (that’s mine, by the way), choose a specific time each day to practice that new habit. Then set a few timers, say one 10 minutes before, one 5 minutes before, and one for 1 minute before. Then make sure you follow through with your triggers. Or leave notes all over as reminders. Find an appropriate trigger for your new habit and then follow-through when you are triggered.
5. Don’t go it alone. If possible, team up with a buddy who is working on the same new habit, or with all of us participating in the End 08 Great Challenge. Use your buddy for encouragement, understanding and commiseration. If you don’t have a buddy who is working on a similar task, find someone (a spouse, child, friend, family member, etc.) who will keep you accountable and be your cheerleader.

How are you doing with your new habit so far? We’d love for you to let us know. To share your new habit journey with us, leave us a comment, send us an email, post about it on your blog and send us the link, or participate along with us on Twitter. (You can click here to follow our tweets.)

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