Excel at Building Healthy Habits—Apr. 6
SAGe (Self-Actualized Genius)—Learn More
March 30, 2025
Sunday SAGe Newsletter Volume 29: Excel at Building Healthy Habits
Here is this week’s installment of Sunday SAGe, an email communication that shares wellness inspiration from The Wellness Ethic to help people thrive during the coming week (and beyond!).
This week, our topic—building healthy habits—can help you move forward in practically all aspects of your life.
Excel at Building Healthy Habits
An excerpt from The Wellness Ethic:
Science has shown that 45% of what you do is habitual. Your SAGe wants that 45% to work for you. Becoming a master of your habits, rather than your habits mastering you, requires a mindful approach to habit building. Which habits can you create, expand upon, or eliminate to promote wellness? Which habits can you do in the morning, afternoon, or evening to further your intentions?
What It Means
To excel at building habits, consider stacking your habits. One of the most effective ways to build a habit is to incorporate it into an established routine. Do you want to start practicing yoga? If you have already cemented the habit of exercising each morning, practice yoga after you exercise. Soon, yoga will become a natural extension of that morning routine.
Use instigation habits to make habit adoption easier. An instigation habit is a preparatory action or a cue that reduces barriers to completing a desired habit. For example, you could prep healthy meals on Sunday for the upcoming week (instigation habit—preparatory action) to make it easier to eat healthy (desired habit). Or place a book on your nightstand (instigation habit—cue) to remind you to read at night (desired habit).
Practice habit substitution. Substitute a good behavior for an unhealthy one. If you have a habit of drinking alcohol when stressed, meditate instead. Rather than spending hours on social media when bored, engage in a fulfilling hobby. Soon, you will form a good habit and crave its positive reward.
Another best practice is to commit to regularly engaging in a good habit, even if it’s brief due to other commitments. That’s how I approach exercising. My daily routine lasts about ninety minutes. Some days, usually because of work overload, I may exercise for ten minutes, but I’ll keep the habit going.
And for those times when life takes over, if you break your streak of engaging in a good habit, learn from the experience and try to avoid missing the next day. If you feed a negative streak, it will crave another fix, and then another one after that. Before long, you will have developed a bad habit.
Be patient as you build your habits. It’s acceptable to start small and build up over time. The key is to establish a reliable routine of action.
Your Call to Action
Which positive habit do you want to introduce into your daily routines? A daily walk? Meditation? Repeating positive affirmations? Stretching? Whatever it is, the more intentional you are with your approach to habit building, the greater your odds of success will be.
Have an outstanding week!
