How To Make Habits Stick: Part 1

Making habits stick long term is really hard. The reason you may be failing to create positive change is not what you might think.

Habits can both be positive (I’m in the habit of going for a walk after dinner) or negative (I’ve fallen into the habit of staying up late watching TV). Interestingly, the process of developing or removing habits is much the same for both positive or negative behaviours. The goal in habit formation is to set yourself up with a plan that doesn’t require a reliance on high levels of motivation or energy to make the habit happen.

HABIT: Something that you do often and regularly, sometimes without knowing that you are doing it.

In his recent book ‘Tiny Habits’, B.J. Fogg, Behaviour Scientist and Director of the Behaviour Design Lab at Stanford University, explores the most effective approach towards developing long lasting and effective habit change. I highly recommend reading this book. However, with many of us heading back into homeschooling this week, let me condense the book into bite size pieces for you so you can put it into practice today.

I’m sure you could all come up with countless habits you have tried to change over the years: sleep more, lose weight, stop yelling at the children, increase productivity, reduce screen time. However, there is a big gap between what we want to do and what we actually do. Most of the time we blame ourselves for these failings - we are too lazy, not motivated enough. But Fogg explains that the problem is not due to our lack of trying or weak character, the problem is with the approach we are taking to the task at hand. So stop judging yourself and reassess how you approach habit change.

“We are not the problem. Our approach to change is. It’s a design flaw not a personal flaw.”

— BJ Fogg

FIND YOUR FOCUS

Step one towards long lasting habit change is to decide what habit you want to focus on and make it very specific. “I’m going to improve my health” is a fantastic declaration, but it’s incredibly overwhelming and far too vague. Breaking this down to the next level you might decide to eat well and move more. This is better, but still not specific enough. You need to choose one habit and one habit only - one that is both important and able to be manipulated (more on that next week). So let’s choose exercise as the habit you want to focus on. Your habit change is to “move more”.

MAKE IT TINY

Now, as the title of the book suggests, long lasting change needs to start small, really small. We’ve all had those moments of high motivation when we decided to give up sugar, refrain from online shopping or get up early and run every day. Research suggests that “big” habit change usually last for about a month, then we go right back to what we were doing before.

In order to make a habit last, it needs to start as a teeny tiny change. Rather than deciding to go for a run every morning, you could start with walking one lap around the block. Or go even smaller and your new habit might be to simply put your runners on first thing in the morning. Keeping your habit really small means you are much more likely to do it. Once your runners are on, you might find yourself doing a quick lap around the block. But your habit creation is to simply put your runners on as soon as you get out of bed.

Maybe your gaol is to improve your diet. Once again make your change really small. Pick one meal, or one snack, or even one food. Maybe it’s breakfast - get rid of the Nutrigrain and start the day with egg and avocado on toast. Or change your afternoon cup of tea and biscuit to a herbal tea and handful of nuts. Just choose one tiny thing and do it every day.

DO IT DAILY

The final note in this week’s summary is that habit change is more likely to continue if we do it daily, rather than once or twice a week. Things we do every day become more automated than weekly activities. We don’t even think about brushing our teeth, making our beds, driving the car as these have become such a natural part of our days. So start your habit change with something that you will do every single day.

Find your focus, make it tiny and do it daily. What are you wanting to change today?

by Angie Black