On building a habit and finding your method

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Flossing was not a habit engrained in me as a child and it's taken many years before I could make it one. 

Originally, I had tried marking my progress every day similar to what's suggested by the X effect. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep steady progress for longer than a month, especially after January when my resolutions faded. 

I was finally able to build a stronger habit by making two changes. 

1) [Make it simple and less of a chore] Placing the floss in my shower so I could save time and effort. Previously, I flossed right before brushing my teeth but often skipped it because it felt like a tedious step. 

2) [Find a method that increases your motivation] Changing up my scorecard to use stamps instead of drawing a pattern or highlighting. The stamps gave me extra motivation as they had a cute design and made me happy to see :)

In the end, after 6 months of the "revised" system, I was able to build up the habit and no longer needed the scorecard to keep track. 

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