When many think of self improvement and times to reflect on yourself, January 1st comes to mind. New years always bring about a time of self reflection.

But it doesn’t need to stop there. If you’re anything like me, I try to take time several times a year to look back on the previous few months and reflect on what all took place. This year is no different, and as we’re on our way to half way through this year, I’m taking time to reflect and look forward to what the rest of the year holds.

During this time of reflection, I take time to review my current habits and create a list of goals and new routines I’d like to begin.

While I do enjoy making goals at the beginning of each year, I’m also an advocate for reviewing and making adjustments to your mindset and habits throughout the year. Sometimes, it’s the small shifts that can make a major impact on your well-being.

One thing I work on before I add to my list of habits I want to change, I take a look at some of the toxic habits I want out of my life.

For this post, I’m doing something a little bit different. Instead of listing bad habits that you may want to break, I’m going to list out good habits you can replace bad habits with. Let’s stay positive here because I think we all need a little more positivity in our lives!

17 Healthy Habits to Implement in Your Life

And Work Towards Getting Rid of Bad/Toxic Habits

1. Drink Enough Water
2. Strive to Eat a Healthy, Balanced Diet
3. Believe in Yourself
4. Don’t Compare Yourself to Others
5. Let Go of the Past and Forgive Yourself
6. Release Others and Forgive them
7. Set Goals for Success
8. Take Time For Yourself
9. Surround Yourself with Positive and Uplifting People
10. Let Go of Things You Cannot Control
11. Set Time Aside Each Week to Rest
12. Go to Bed on Time
13. Get Rid of the Snooze Button
14. Establish a Gratitude Practice
15. Find a Hobby that Brings You Joy
16. Get into a Good Routine
17. Look for Ways to Improve Yourself

Drinking Enough Water

Water is so important to your overall well-being, prevents dehydration, and helps with your overall mood.

Tip: How to Add This into Your Routine
Set a goal each day for drinking water. You can do this by:

• Tracking it in an app (this is so satisfying)
• Get a water bottle that you enjoy drinking out of and is easy to track how much you drink. For me, this means having a straw and makes a big difference in how much water I drink daily. Here’s a link to my favorite water bottle.

Strive to Eat a Healthy, Balanced Diet

If I’m being honest, the only way that I eat a balanced diet is if I plan. If I don’t plan out our meals, I find we either get takeout or we gravitate towards more processed foods.

Tip: How to Improve Your Diet
To fix this, I’ve started to plan out our meals a month in advance. While this might seem like a lot, the process takes me far less time and reduces my overall stress about meal planning. This process has helped us add more variety to our meals and has helped me start to enjoy cooking again! Needless to say, it’s been a game-changer for me.

Believe in Yourself

Believing in yourself is essential to get rid of bad and toxic habits in your life. If you’re in a pattern of putting telling yourself you cannot achieve that goal or accomplish a new project, chances are you’ll never try – which in return, you’ll fulfill the negative thoughts you’ve had. Updating your mindset to be positive and believe in yourself will shift your perspective on life!

Tip: Find a Positive Mantra to Bring into Your Life

Let Go of the Comparison Game

Comparing yourself to others, especially to highlight reels online can be harmful to your mental health, and take away your confidence. It’s important to remember that everyone is at a different place in life, has different resources, different life experiences, and resources. So do your best to not compare yourself to others and to just be you.

Tip: Reduce Time on Social Media
Need help in this area? Try getting rid of social media, set time limits, unfollow accounts, or delete apps off your phone. Remember, this doesn’t have to be a permanent change.

Let Go of the Past and Forgive Yourself

Constantly living and reliving past failures can be harmful and can keep you in a holding pattern. Not letting go of the past failures and mistakes can greatly impact our present and future.

Release Others and Forgive them

This point goes hand in hand with the previous point. It’s important to remember that by not forgiving others the real person you are hurting is yourself. You’re the one that’s holding on to the anger and bitterness and it’s impacting your life more than it is theirs. When you let go and forgive others, you don’t have to let those that have hurt you back into your life. It’s important to set boundaries and keep toxic people out.

Tip: For Letting Go of Mistakes and Forgiving Others
There are so many good books and resources online, but it might not be enough. It’s OK to seek out help from a professional. They’re trained to listen and help you identify ways you can move forward.

Set Goals for Success

Setting goals is an important part of self-improvement.

Tip for Setting Goals
When I’m working on my list of goals. I start big and work my way backward creating smaller and micro-goals along the way. This allows me to take tangible steps towards something I want to achieve.

Take Time For Yourself

Taking time to reset can do wonders for your mental health. Depending on the season of life you’re in, it can be challenging to carve out time throughout the week and month.

Tip: How to Take Time For Yourself
If your time is limited, I’d recommend finding small ways to help you mentally reset and rest. It could be a simple as taking 30 minutes before bed to read a favorite book, or cozy up on the couch after a long day to watch your favorite TV show (I’ve been doing this and knitting while I watch TV. It’s a simple way to help me stay creative while unwinding at the end of the night).

Surround Yourself with Positive and Uplifting People

You naturally become more like the people you surround yourself with, so why not surround yourself with those who are striving for growth and positivity? Toxic and negative people can impact your growth and ability to change. Cutting them out or reducing your exposure will help your overall mental health and mindset.

Let Go of Things You Cannot Control

How many times have you tried to fix something or play out a scenario in your head that you have no control over? (I know my hand is raised high over here) This habit can be exhausting, add stress, and don’t bring about any good in your life.

Set Time Aside Each Week to Rest

Over the years, this has been a challenge to me. I like keeping busy and always have a project. But over the past few years, I’ve started to see how important rest can be to your overall mental health. Setting time aside to rest is important but it’s easy to forget to do when life gets busy. Remember, it’s OK to not check something off your list every day of the week. Your body and mind need rest.

Tip: Write Down 1-2 Small Ways You Can Rest this Week
What are some small changes you can make to help you rest? Can you take a long bath? Read a good book? Not check your work email on the weekend? Think of something small this week and implement it right away!

Go to Bed on Time

Are you a night owl or an early bird? Either way, set bedtime each day and stick to it. (Phone alarms work great as a reminder! 🙂 ) This will help you to establish a routine and get enough rest for the week.

Get Rid of the Snooze Button

This one is a challenge for me, I’m not a morning person.

Tip: Try Setting One Alarm
If you’re too nervous to set one alarm, move your alarm clock or phone to the other side of the room. That way you have to get up to turn it off.

Establish a Gratitude Practice

Having an attitude of thankfulness can have a huge impact on how you perceive the world. Learn more about how to set up an ongoing gratitude practice and about the many benefits.

Find a Hobby that Brings You Joy

When you have downtime, what do you like to do? Read, walk, exercise, craft, DIY, play games, travel? Create a list of things you like to do and/or would love to learn and set time aside to work on things that bring you joy. Each season may bring on different projects and activities, but look for activities that bring fulfillment in that season. It doesn’t have to be grand, but just something you enjoy.

Get into a Good Routine

Routines help to set up a structure for your day.

Work towards creating a routine that works best for your schedule – and know your schedule will change over time depending on what season of life you’re in.

Look for Ways to Improve Yourself

Continue to look for ways to improve and take time for self-reflection. Find books, authors, and/or seek out a counselor that encourages and guides you through the season you’re in.

When you read lists like this one, it’s important to remember that it’s OK not to be perfect. No one has it together all the time.

You’ll have good days and bad days – that’s life.

Don’t be afraid to mentally hit reset each day (or even mid-day) and start working towards establishing better habits.

I know it’s small but even as I’m typing this, I realized that it’s 3 pm and I haven’t drunk any water yet, and my water bottle is right next to me! So, I put it closer to my laptop and by the time my first draft was done, my first 3 glasses of water are done.

Everyone’s list will be different. I know that checking your phone right when you get up is a top toxic habit for a lot of people, but it didn’t make my list here. Why do you ask? Well, since the pandemic started, the first thing I do when I wake up is grabbing a cup of coffee and start working. I know, it sounds thrilling and relaxing, doesn’t it? While, it’s not my preference to start work right when I wake up, it’s during this time that I’m able to get an hour or two of work in before I’m juggling keeping a four-year-old busy with all of my other everyday tasks. So for now, I’m keeping this one off my list. 🙂