Have you ever wanted to know the secret sauce of success? It is a simple concept, really. They are small things that we do everyday without realizing their impact. I have come to realize just how these things shape who we are and where we want to go. That secret sauce to achieve the success we want is our habits. Goal achievement is formed through the creation, maintenance and management of habits. The purpose of habits is it to learn to do things quicker, smarter, more efficiently. We create new ones when the need arises. We maintain good habits, by tweaking them into simpler ones to implement. We manage habits by eliminating the bad or useless ones. We all have a number of habits that have led to a number of positive or negative outcomes. Many times these are so ingrained in us that they are subconscious. These usually direct the outcome our efforts. Over time, without consciously thinking about are actions, you come to an internal understanding that if you completed a task in one manner, you need to repeat it that way each time. For example, when stressed out I’d usually end up eating a larger meal. I also ended up gaining a ton of weight!
When you realize that you have a bad habit, you can take control. It wasn’t until I realized that my portions sizes significantly increased that I needed change. Unfortunately, I was 30lbs heavier when I realized just how good food made me feel when overwhelmed. Conscious change needed to be created. If you’ve ever attempted to lose weight, you do so when you make a decision to cut out sugary deserts, soft drinks, and fried foods. By creating and implementing this new habit, you make conscious efforts to ameliorate the effects of bad habits. So, now that the framework is done, I want to provide you with six ways to implement a new habit and make it stick!
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First, you need to identify your goal. Your raison d’etre! Do you want to lose weight, create a product, or perform work faster? Do know what you need to do? You have to know where you are going. Without a clear idea, you will be ineffective in building the yellow brick road to your Emerald City. You have to understand your purpose and become emotionally connected to it.
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Second, you must identify the habits you need to create and make a commitment to implement them. What are some habits that you would like to create? If you realize you do your best work, you can create mentally intensive activities during that time frame. What are some bad habits you need to eliminate? Do you spend too much time on Facebook instead of working? You will need to manage these appropriately to increase the likelihood of successfully implementing the new habit.
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When I start new projects or goals, I use what I call, The Stacking Habit. All habits are simply actions. Most are conscious before they are engrained in your minds, motor and emotional responses. For me, the best way to implement a goal is to break down bigger habits into smaller habits initially. Once I feel comfortable implementing it, I multiply the work in one sitting it until it becomes the norm. For example, if you want to write a 60,000-word book in 12-weeks. The first think you determine is the number of days per week you can commit to writing based on your current schedule. If you can commit, 1 day per week to writing, your new habit should be to writing at least 5333 words per week—in one sitting. For some of you that may sound daunting, especially if you are a novice! However, using the Stacking Habit Method, you can start off by writing 1066 words, 5 days per week until that is comfortable. The next week write 1066 words three days and double up to 2132 words on the fourth. The next week you drop to two days at 1006 words and 1 day at 3200 words, on the third day. Continue to drop a day and compensate and power work, until you reach the 5,3333 words one day per week! This way you free up time to pursue other activities.
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Space it out. If you find that you are making a lot of mistakes or slow at coming up with fresh ideas, learn to set realistic timeframes. I do not recommend attempting complex activities in one day, unless you can positively do it well. I tell you, only a fraction of the population can! For me I end up making mistakes when I rush through things, so that is why I prefer to space tasks out in phases.
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Utilize downtime efficiently when you have deadlines. For exam if you Take notes a during the day and compile them. We all have ideas for things that we need to do, or add to our lives, but we can just do them all in one sitting. We are constant thinkers. What I do is keep a notebook or notebook app. When a thought or direction comes to mind, jot it down! That way when you sit down to focus on implementing the task instead of wasting time thinking about the thought you had earlier. You will already know what you need to do.
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Lastly, make it fun. I by nature am very competitive person, so I find that if I find a partner who is attempting do to the same, I can set up a mini weekly challenge. If I lose, then I have to pay up. It is usually a small amount, but psychologically speaking, it is the fact that I lost that I want to avoid. Pick a friend who will keep you accountable to reaching your goal.
