My previous 3 posts have focused on different aspects of goal setting;

1. Why it can be challenging to set and stick to goals,

2. How understanding yourself can help to create personalised goals

3. Making use of the Wheel of Life to inspire and motivate you to achieve your goals.

Here I’ll explore the role of habits in helping you achieve your goals, by sharing tips from two authors who have explored the subject in depth; James Clear and B.J. Fogg.

Atomic Habits- James Clear

The key message in Clear’s book is that small, incremental habits accrue over time, leading to significant outcomes. By breaking your goal down into much smaller do-able tasks, your goals feel less daunting.

To break bad habits and develop good ones, Clear has 4 rules:

Rule 1: Do your surroundings support support your habits?
  • For example, if you want to drink more water, keep a water bottle within easy reach.
  • Use visual reminders. If you want to read more, place a book on your pillow so you see it before you go to bed.
  • Specify when and where you’ll perform a habit. Rather than saying “I’ll exercise more,” commit to “I’ll go for a run at 7 AM in the park.”
Rule 2: Make it Attractive:
  • Try pairing an action you want to do with an action you need to do. For example, complete a set of squats while wating for the kettle to boil.
  • Ensure you spend time with people who have the habits you aspire to adopt, as their positive behaviours will rub off on you.
  • Create a ritual around the habit that you find enjoyable. If you like good coffee, use it as a reward for getting up early to work.
Rule 3: Your habit should be easy to do:
  • Decrease the number of steps between you and your good habits. Putting out your workout clothes the night before if you plan to exercise in the morning will make it more likely you’ll go to the gym.
  • Prepare your environment for success. By keeping healthy snacks readily available to avoid the temptation to reach for junk food, you’ll make better food choices.
  • Start with habits that take two minutes or less to perform. For instance, “read one page” instead of “read every night.”
Rule 4: Build  in a reward as soon as you’ve completed your habit:
  • This could be a small treat – for example, a five-minute break.
  • Use a habit tracker so you can see your progress. The satisfaction of marking an “X” on a calendar can be a powerful motivator.
  • Reflect on the benefits you feel from your new habit. Remind yourself why you started and the progress you’ve made.
Where to focus

Clear encourages you to focus on your identity, not on your goal outcomes. What kind of person do you want to become? Ask yourself “what would a person who was well-organised do?” for example, and behave accordingly. Remember to celebrate small wins to reinforce your new behaviour. Next, identify what triggers your habits.

The Habit Loop:
  • A cue  is a trigger that starts the habit. It could be a time of day, an emotional state, or a specific location. For example, brushing your teeth in the morning.
  • Your desire for a change in state or feeling. e.g. Wanting to freshen your mouth and have healthy teeth.
  • Performing the  actual habit. i.e. Brushing your teeth.
  • The benefit you gain from the habit, which reinforces it. i.e. not having to have remedial dental work done when you visit your dentist.
Habit Stacking:
  • To make the new behaviour easier to remember and perform, attach a new habit to a current habit. For example, if you want to reduce your chances of having a fall, you might decide to balance on one leg while brushing your teeth.
  • By associating new habits with established ones, you create a series of behaviours which flow naturally, making it easier to stick to new routines.
Focus on the process:
  • At the beginning of habit formation, progress may seem slow or non-existent, which can be discouraging.
  • Understand that habits are like compound interest—small, consistent actions build up over time. Persistence is essential; continued effort will eventually lead to noticeable improvements and breakthroughs.
  • Rather than being discouraged by lack of immediate results, focus on the process and trust that the benefits will accumulate over time.
Tiny Habits: BJ Fogg
Start small

Fogg similarly encourages you to make very small, incremental changes which are easy to perform. These small changes. coupled with low expectations mean you don’t have to rely on motivation, which takes energy.

Celebrate success

The author places considerable emphasis on rewarding the behaviour you’re trying to reinforce. Doing so causes your brain to recognise and encode the sequence of new behaviours you perform. Emotions anchor habits. Celebrate immediately after performing the new behaviour.

The motivation wave

The motivation wave describes the temporary surge of energy you get when, filled with enthusiasm for a healthy new you, you join a gym but after the first few weeks you stop going. Motivation fluctuates and so cannot be relied on.

Gradual progress

Fogg suggests increasing the difficulty of the habit once you’ve embedded it. Self-awareness is key to understanding your motivation.

By re-designing my home environment, I’ve found that by putting treats quite literally out of sight and reach means I either forget they’re there- or the effort of retrieval means I can’t be bothered to get the step ladder out in order to get to them.

Action

If the whole notion of setting New Year resolutions- or goals of any kind causes you stress, why not follow the suggestions of the two authors. Start very small indeed.  Incremental changes deliver powerful results over time and won’t drain your motivational battery.

What one small habit will you implement this year?

It doesn’t matter how successful or unsuccessful you are right now. What matters is whether your habits are putting you on the path toward success. You should be far more concerned with  your current trajectory than with your current results.  James Clear.