I watched this TED talk video on changing behaviour a few days ago, which really inspired me to take a more structured approach to developing a new positive habit. The key points of the video are that in order to affect long-term behavior change, you need to have a trigger - some habit that you already have, or an environmental queue that you can chain the new behavior from. You also need to make the new behavior as easy to do as possible. You want to associate a “micro-behavior” with your trigger - something that can easily become a habit, but that you can later expand to fully incorporate the new habit you are trying to achieve. Finally, you need to reward yourself in some way every time you do the micro-behavior.
Dr Jill Bolte Taylor's stroke experience
Dr Jill Bolte Taylor is is a Harvard-trained and published neuroanatomist who had a brain stroke on 10th Dec 1996. The stroke put pressure on the language centers on the left hemisphere of her brain. On the 27th Feb 2008, she gave a talk at TED about the experience. The talk is well worth watching!