Setting goals and having a plan doesn’t guarantee that you’ll succeed. Making consistent progress every day requires you to create effective habits so that you show up with your best chance for a productive day.
But how can you create the right habits? And what does it take to ingrain them into your life?
Today we share why habits matter so much, how to consciously create them, and steps you can take to ensure they stick.
TIME-STAMPED SHOW NOTES:
[00:59] Intro
[02:12] Why Habits Matter
[03:21] The Anatomy of a Habit
[05:29] A Habit’s Effect on Success
[06:45] The 4 Laws of Behavioral Change
[08:45] How to Create Effective Habits That Stick
[15:49] You Will Create Effective Habits
[17:11] Bloopers
RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:
[Theresa] Did you know that we human beings spend a lot of our waking hours on autopilot?
[Meghan] That’s not surprising to me at all.
[Theresa] Can you guess how much time?
[Meghan] Hm. I’d say about a third of our day.
[Theresa] You’re so close! A study conducted by Duke University found that you spend about half of your awake hours performing automated behaviors.
[Meghan] Wow! Half? It’s no wonder days fly by so quickly.
[Theresa] Right? And those automated behaviors are habits that you’ve formed. That’s all a habit is. It’s a behavior you perform regularly that, at least most of the time, is done subconsciously.
[Meghan] And, some of those habits are good ones, like brushing your teeth before bed or drinking water throughout the day. But some of them are bad, like hitting the snooze button on your alarm 10 times or checking your social media every hour.
Why Habits Matter
[Theresa] The habits you’ve developed have consequences. Good or bad, habits matter. Period.
Your habits are fundamental to who you are and what you want to achieve. If you’re not making the progress you want, the first
place to start is with you and your habits. There is no external tool or person who is going to make a difference for you.
If you’re not making the progress you want, the first place to start is with you and your habits. There is no external tool or person who is going to make a difference.
All change begins with you. So, if you want better results, create better habits.
[Meghan] You may not realize this, but your habits significantly affect how you think, act, and feel. Your habits influence your behavior. And your behavior affects how you work and your productivity.
Your habits affect how you think, act, and feel. Your habits influence your behavior. And your behavior affects how you work and your productivity.Click To Tweet[Theresa] That’s right. While there is a process for consciously creating good habits, a lot of this work is mindset. We’re going to dive into some simple mindset hacks you can use to develop better habits in just a bit. But I thought we’d start by reviewing the anatomy of a habit.
[Meghan] That’s a good place to begin.
The Anatomy of a Habit
[Theresa] In episode 23, we dove deep into how to build good habits as shared by James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits.
The first thing that’s important to understand is the anatomy of a habit loop. All habit loops follow this four-step process:
- Cue (the trigger to initiate an action)
- Craving (the motivation or desire to perform the action)
- Response (the actual habit you perform)
- Reward (satisfies your craving)
Every automatic behavior you form is a habit loop.
[Meghan] I’m guessing that most people don’t think about how habits start or how they work. It really requires stepping back for a minute to analyze your habits.
[Theresa] Yes, it does. But first, it’s important to be aware of the habits you have. Then you can analyze them and determine if they serve your needs.
Getting back to habit loops, here’s one in action:
- Your alarm goes off (cue)
- You want to stay in your warm bed (craving)
- S0, you hit the snooze button (response)
- Then you get to stay toasty and cozy in your bed (reward)
Here’s another:
- Your alarm goes off (cue)
- You wake up excited to have another productive day (craving)
- So, you get up right away and start your morning ritual (response)
- As a result, you knock out that lead magnet you’ve been putting off in 2 hours (reward)
A Habit’s Effect On Success
[Theresa] In these examples, the cue is exactly the same. However, two very different habits were formed. Why does it matter?
Well, I want you to think about which habit would support the success of a business coach who wishes to pivot from one-on-one coaching to digital course creation. Of course, it’s the second habit of getting up right at your alarm and jumping excitedly into your day.
Your habits influence your performance.
[Meghan] It’s amazing how habits affect attitude and performance!
So, the business coach who is serious about changing her model to digital courses would not be hitting the snooze button and getting a late start to her day.
[Theresa] A late start gets you off on the wrong foot. That leads to negative self-talk and limiting beliefs which don’t foster a positive attitude. And you just can’t be successful when you have a negative mindset.
[Meghan] That’s so true. When you create a good habit, that leads to another good habit and another. You see the pattern?
So, build good habits that will support your success.
The 4 Laws of Behavioral Change
[Theresa] If you want to consciously build good habits, you need a process. The mechanics of habit formation is simple. I use the method that James Clear outlines in Atomic Habits.
I love the simplicity of his method and how it correlates to the habit loop. James breaks down the 4 Laws of Behavioral Change this way:
- #1 Make it obvious (cue)
- #2 Make it attractive (craving)
- #3 Make it easy (response)
- #4 Make it satisfying (reward)
[Meghan] Ok, Theresa, will you apply each of these laws to that second habit loop example from earlier? This will clarify how this method works.
[Theresa] Sure can.
- Your alarm goes off (the sound of the alarm is the obvious cue that it’s time to get up)
- You wake up excited to have another productive day (the craving is for the REWARD of having accomplished something that matters, like your lead magnet)
- So, you get up right away and start your morning ritual (your response to the cue aligns with the anticipation of the reward, which is something simple to do…like just getting up!)
- As a result, you knock out that lead magnet you’ve been putting off in 2 hours (the reward is the feeling of satisfaction or pride at having accomplished a big piece of your email funnel)
You see? It’s not complicated to create effective habits. The tricky part of habit formation is getting them to stick.
[Meghan] Of course, automating your habits so you act without thinking about it takes practice. In the beginning, it’s a lot of conscious effort. But your consistent effort will pay off. So be patient with yourself.
How to Create Effective Habits that Stick
[Theresa] Patience is necessary for sure. But you also need the right mindset to create effective habits. What you think about will directly affect the process.
[Meghan] In other words, you need more than the mechanics. Which I think leads nicely into the next segment. Wouldn’t you say, Theresa?
[Theresa] I would! Mindset matters, you know.
[Meghan] And mindset matters a lot to creating effective habits. So what’s first?
1. Be Aware of Who You Are Becoming
[Theresa] You first need to be aware of who you are becoming. Only then can you begin to create the right habits.
Look at your goals. What do you want to accomplish? Where is your business headed? And then, how does THAT person behave?
Once you know that, you can look at your current behavior and ask yourself if it aligns with who you are becoming.
Be aware of who you are becoming. Once you know that, you can look at your current behavior and ask yourself if it aligns with that person.
[Meghan] So, let me get this right. If you’re a business coach looking to move from client work to digital products, you should first envision how a digital product creator behaves, and then create your habits to support that?
[Theresa] Exactly. One thing you can do to support yourself is creating a mantra to foster a positive vision of your successful self. Then hang it up where you can see it every day and say it out loud often.
[Meghan] Vision is so important! You become what you most think about. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. So put a positive mantra to work for your mind!
What’s next?
2. Start Small and Be Patient
[Theresa] “Tomorrow I’ll be different!” Have you ever said that to yourself? I have.
When I was a struggling workaholic, I’d say that–out loud–in a sleep-deprived, stressed-out funk. And I really thought that the next day I would get up and I’d behave like the badass I knew I could be.
Of course, it wouldn’t surprise you to know that I failed miserably. You can’t create effective habits over night. It takes time, fortitude, patience. It requires starting small.
[Meghan] This is an overarching theme in our podcast episodes. When you bite off more than you can chew, you’re destined to fall flat on your face. Why do that to yourself?
[Theresa] Yeah. That’s where the patience part comes in. If you are a snooze button puncher, pick one thing to change first. It could be something very small.
[Meghan] For example, if you press snooze five times, your first step may be to only hit the snooze button three times. Is that what you mean?
[Theresa] That could be one way to approach it. Or perhaps your inability to get up in the morning is related to what you do the night before. So, maybe you begin by working on an earlier bedtime.
It’s a highly personalized process.
3. Know Thyself and Be Honest
But the most important thing you need to do is be honest with yourself. No one knows you better than you. And if you can’t be honest with yourself, what hope do you have to create effective habits? Or any effective change, for that matter?
[Meghan] I agree that it’s important to be honest with yourself. But looking at your own shortcomings and flaws can be hard to do.
[Theresa] Yes, but only if you think about them as shortcomings and flaws. Those are limiting beliefs. Instead, tell yourself, “I’m identifying and changing behaviors that no longer serve me.”
Get rid of limiting beliefs around your unwanted habits by reframing your thoughts to, “I’m identifying and changing behaviors that no longer serve me.”
[Meghan] That makes sense. So, if I KNOW that I’m just going to keep hitting the snooze button, then I should move my phone or clock to the other side of the bedroom. That will improve my chances of modifying my behavior and my habit, right?
[Theresa] Now you’ve got it.
[Meghan] Ok, what else ya got?
4. Don’t Start From Scratch
[Theresa] One way to reduce resistance to building good habits and increase the chance of your success is to build off of existing good habits.
[Meghan] I’m so glad you said that. I was thinking that maybe our listeners were thinking that they only had bad habits! Of course, you have good habits.
[Theresa] Right. Putting multiple habits together to form a routine is called habit stacking. And it’s a good thing to do.
I know that I’m kind of obsessing about sleep in this episode, but sleep was one of the most critical things I fixed in my own success journey. So, I know the effect that good sleep has on other parts of my life. But I digress.
When I focused on fixing my sleep, I didn’t create an elaborate nighttime routine right away. Instead I looked at my current behavior and honed in on one good habit that I’d already formed. That habit is reading a physical book for 15-30 minutes before bed.
[Meghan] That’s a great habit. What’s wrong with that?
[Theresa] Nothing. Everything else I was doing around bedtime was the problem.
I wanted to clear out my creative brain before I went to sleep so I chose to add journaling for 10 minutes to my bedtime routine. At first, I tried adding that activity after I finished reading. As a result, I’d skip the journaling. Then I’d wake up in the middle of the night like I always did with a racing mind and an inability to get back to sleep.
Instead of giving up on the new habit I wanted to form, I flipped that around and used reading as a reward for journaling. As a result, I was able to sleep more soundly because the journaling helped me clear out my thoughts.
[Meghan] That is brilliant! So, use existing good habits to help you establish new good ones.
Anything else?
5. Don’t Dwell on Bad Days
[Theresa] Just one more. There are going to be days when everything just seems to go wrong. You may fall back into an unwanted habit.
[Meghan] Oh yeah. Just because you create effective habits doesn’t mean that those old ones don’t come into play anymore. If those bad habits are well established, they will pop up from time to time.
[Theresa] It’s true. In those cases, the most decent thing you can do is acknowledge, forgive and move on! Dwelling on any negative thoughts or feelings won’t serve you. And they’ll actually reinforce those old, unwanted behaviors.
You keep moving forward by saying, “oopsie” and then promise yourself that you won’t let it happen twice in a row.
[Meghan] Because you don’t want to start creating a new, unwanted habit. Right?
[Theresa] Bingo!
You Will Create Effective Habits
[Theresa] I’d like to leave you with this final thought. When it comes to forming good habits, it’s not a matter of can or can’t. It IS a matter of will or won’t.
We know you CAN do it, but WILL you? We sure hope so.
Do you want to add anything, Meghan?
[Meghan] I’d like to add that you’ll always be adjusting your habits. If there’s one constant in life, it’s change.
So pay attention to habits that don’t serve your needs any longer and replace them with new ones. Sometimes even a good habit isn’t the right habit.
[Theresa] That’s a great point to make.
We hope you see how you can create effective habits that stick with just a few mindset tweaks. What will you focus on first?
Please take a few minutes to leave us a comment below or share this post. We appreciate your support!
Don’t forget to click the FOLLOW US button below to get notified when a new episode and blog post launch.
