A Simple Strategy for Creating Healthy Habits That Last!
Traditionally February is that time of year when all those resolutions that were set on January 1st start falling by the wayside.
And if this has been true for you, stop beating yourself up about it!
There’s plenty of research to show that resolutions don’t exactly set you up for success. In fact, it’s been estimated that only 9% of people keep their resolutions.
So why do we continue to insist on torturing ourselves?
Honestly, I'm not sure, but I think a lot of it boils down to not knowing any different. A lot of us grew up believing that we had to “go hard or go home” (you had that T-shirt too right?!).
The trouble with this idea is that it’s NOT ACTUALLY HELPFUL. It seems like an ok thought, but more often than not it just keeps us from getting started in the first place.
We think that in order to create meaningful change we have to overhaul our entire lives all at once. But the truth is, SOMETHING is almost always better than nothing.
It’s pretty common to start strong with such good intentions in January only to find yourself back at square one just a few short weeks later.
In other words, it’s easy for life to get in the way.
But why wouldn’t it? Life is FULL and busy and while there are certainly seasons where some things have to take priority over others. The reality is things probably aren't going to slow down anytime soon. So instead of that expectation, it might be helpful to reframe things a little.
One of my favorite concepts from James Clears’ book Atomic Habits. He suggests that in order to (successfully) build a new habit you have to do 4 things:
Make it OBVIOUS
Make it ATTRACTIVE
Make it EASY
Make it SATISFYING
Aka: cue, craving, response, reward.
The concept that all behavior is driven by the desire to solve a problem.
Here’s an example Clear uses:
You wake up (cue)
You want to feel awake (craving)
You drink a cup of coffee (response)
You satisfy your craving to feel alert. Drinking coffee becomes associated with waking up.
And your morning coffee HABIT is born.
The good news is this simple formula can be applied to almost any behavior! But the craving piece is big. And it’s different for all of us. You probably don’t crave a workout, but you love how you feel afterwards, so this desire to change how you feel can be very motivating!
And the opposite is true as well.
If you’re trying to break a bad habit, make it invisible, make it hard, make it unattractive, make it unsatisfying. Something I’ve been working on recently is leaving my phone in the other room to avoid being distracted while I’m working. It’s not hard to get up and walk to another room but that little bit of friction makes me more intentional about when I choose to rather than picking it up out of habit.
Clear says, "Every goal is doomed to fail if it goes against the grain of human nature.”
I’d love to hear what habit you’re working on and how you’re making it easier on yourself!
P.S. If this concept is interesting to you, here’s an oldie but goodie Brene Brown podcast (so good in fact they made it into 2 episodes) where she talks with James Clear about how to build better habits, break bad ones and change your environment to support the habits you want to continue for the long term.
You can listen to part 1 here
And part 2 here