Introduction
We’re all creatures of habit. We tend to wake up at the same time each day, brush our teeth, have morning coffee and commute to work, following the same patterns every day. So why is it so hard to form new healthy habits?
Behavioural scientists who study habit formation say that many of us try to create healthy habits the wrong way. We make bold resolutions to start exercising or lose weight, for example, without taking the steps needed to set ourselves up for success. Creating a good habit takes care, patience, and realistic expectations.
Tips
Getting 1 percent better every day counts for a lot in the long-run. Your little habits matter. Imagine if you improved your habits by only 1% every day. You’d be dramatically a different person in a year. Then imagine if you let your habits decline by 1% every day. You’d be in a much worse spot in life overall a year from now.
You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems. Oftentimes we focus on goals in our life, while neglecting to focus on the systems that help us achieve goals. Goal achievement can actually set us back if we don’t set up sustainable systems. Get the systems right and then we’ll indeed also achieve our goals.
Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. Do you want to be a more organised person? When you develop habits and systems that organise your life, you are casting votes for thinking of yourself as an organised person. The flip side of this can be true too. What if you often show up late to meetings? You’re casting votes that may make you think “well, I’m just a person that is always late.”
How long does it actually take to form a new habit? You just need to get your reps in. X number of actions. Meaning, you may need to simply complete a new habit 100 times for it to stick. It is better to think of forming new habits in terms of consistently taking action, versus trying to stick to a habit for just X number of days.
Reduce friction. Decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits. The inverse of this is also true – increase friction between you and your bad habits!
Use temptation bundling. Pair an action you want to do with an action you need to do. This is a powerful concept. Think about a new habit you want to start and how you can bundle it with an action you’re already taking. Stack them together – i.e. habit stacking.
Use a habit tracker. Keep track of your habit streak and ‘don’t break the chain.
What gets measured gets managed.
Never miss twice. When you forget to do a habit, make sure you get back on track immediately.
We all will have days where we fall off the bandwagon and our habits go in reverse. Well, that’s okay for one day. Don’t let it happen twice. Get back on track as soon as possible.
Habits are Like Trees
It’s weird to say, but habits are like trees. Breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a large oak tree and creating a good habit is like cultivating a small little sapling.
Goals are Overrated
Goals are problematic because they are binary, you either obtain the goal, or you don’t. In this way, a goal can punish you even if you achieved the desired lifestyle (becoming fit, financial security, etc.). This is why people often fall into bad habits after reaching a goal.
Identity > Habits
It’s your identity that allows you to confront the inevitable challenges that arise when mastering something. The goal is to view yourself as the ‘kind of’ person who performs the desired action. Change your identity and your outcomes will automatically change.
The Goal is to Win the Election, Not Perfection
Each time you do a good habit or action you are casting the vote for the type of person you want to become. Each time you do something undesirable, you are casting a vote in the opposite box. Your goal isn’t to be perfect with your identity, it’s to win the majority.
Habits Solve Problems
Problem solving is all about weighing pros and cons of a situation and creating a plan of action. This takes brain power. To free up space to solve problems, your brain creates habits to automatically address recurring problems in your life.
Habit Stacking
This is essentially a sequence of helpful habits that happen one after another. Morning routines are great examples of Habit Stacks.
Habit Trackers
There are many ways to measure your habits including journals and apps. Use whatever system is easiest for you. Allow life to happen. Missing one day of a habit is fine, but never let yourself miss two days in a row.
Beware of Immediate Pleasures
Just because a habit has an initially positive result, doesn’t mean that it will be helpful in the long-run. It almost always happens that when the immediate consequence is favourable, the later consequences are disastrous, and vice versa.
Be Predictable
It’s often the person who creates a predictable, repeatable lifestyle that sees the most growth. Don’t be afraid to be boring. There’s nothing more boring than the person who does everything while becoming nothing.
Temptation Bundling
One of the easiest ways to create a good habit is to use a system called Temptation Bundling. Temptation Bundling is the process of pairing short-term and long-term gratifications together.
Your Environment Shapes Your Success
Your physical environment shapes habit success. Your habits can benefit from similar lifestyle design. Shape your home, because it will shape you.
Your Friends Shape Your Success
We are a mirror of our closest companions. You are the average of the 5 closest people in your life. The goal is to join a culture where your desired behaviour is normal behaviour. Find a group of like-minded folks who identify with your ideal self. The shared identity will reinforce your personal identity.
Quantity Trumps Quality
instead of getting caught up on creating something perfect, focus on slight improvements over time. Look at the famous 1% example. A 1% improvement every day for a year will yield over 37x the initial result.
Preparation Can Be Procrastination
For self-motivated people, procrastination often comes in the form of things that feel productive, but are actually time wasters.
Professionals Keep Going
Simply put, when successful people get knocked down they get back up again. It is wrong to think that if you can’t do something perfectly, you shouldn’t do it at all. Failure is going to happen. In fact, it must happen for you to become successful. To be afraid of failure is to deny success.
Target Identities, Not Numbers
Humans love number-based goals. But just because something can be measured, doesn’t mean it is actually helpful for your lifestyle.
What Annoying Process Do You Love?
It’s often your ability to fall in love with a boring process that makes you successful in the long run. There are things in your life that feel natural, that come at great difficulty to other people. Those are your strengths.
Creating Superpowers: The Power of Combination
You will probably never become world-class in an industry. But that’s ok. Great things happen when you combine things that you are pretty good at, instead of trying to become world-class at a single, highly-competitive thing.
4% Flows
A flow state is a mindset where you are incredibly productive and tuned into the work you are doing. To enter a flow state: create a Distraction-Free Environment and Push Yourself 4% More than Last Time. By pushing yourself slightly, you give your brain the right amount of challenge and comfort to grow without burn-out or boredom.
Mastery Leads to Complacency
After a while, your mastery of a subject becomes a liability. The trick is to become the type of person who is willing to become better. Be the type of person who continually grows and changes.
Establish A System for Reflection and Review
Creating a good habit is an awesome accomplishment. However, it is vital for you to have a system to review your accomplishments and reorient your habit systems. By setting aside regular time to review your performance, you can discern if your lifestyle needs any changes.
Questions:
What are some bad habits that need to be uprooted in your life?
What are some good habits that need to be planted and nurtured?
What is the true desire at the root of my goals?
What type of person do you want to embody?
In what areas of your life are you trying to be perfect?
What reoccurring problems do you have in your life? Could these problems be solved with habits?
What times of day can you dedicate to habit stacking?
What system do you use to keep track of your habits?
If you continued your current lifestyle for 30 years, where would you be? What instant gratification habits are keeping you from thriving in the long-term?
How can you create consistency in your life for habit to thrive?
How can you pair your favourite short term gratifications with long term desires?
How can you shape your home to create good habits? Would your ideal self thrive in your home?
Do the people around you reinforce your desired self identity? What in-person or online group can you join to help encourage your ideal lifestyle?
In what areas of your life are you focusing too heavily on quality, instead of quantity? How can you create or do something poorly today, with the hope of getting better in the future?
What ‘productive’ thing in your life is actually a source of procrastination?
How has your fear of failure kept you from starting a good habit?
What unhelpful measurements of success should you rethink? What is the real motivation behind your number-based goals?
What boring thing do you love? What do you enjoy doing that others complain about?
What are two skills that you can combine to create a superpower?
How often do you remove distractions and work in a ‘flow’ state?
What skill have you mastered that needs a refresh? What new technologies could destroy your current industry?
How will you regularly review your habits?