1. Pick only ONE small, positive habit. If your habit is something that can be timed (for example, exercise or meditation), only do it for five or ten minutes at the start. You will expand the time later, but start as small as possible. This is extremely important.
The habit must be performed immediately after a trigger, i.e., something you already do every day. The habit doesn’t have to be done at an exact time (seven o’clock in the morning, noon, etc.) but after a specific trigger.
The trigger must be set off every day and exactly once a day. Why every day? If it’s not done every day, then you will have a difficult time really forming the habit. Why not more than once a day? We want this to be an easy habit to form—if you have to worry about doing it multiple times a day, the effort it takes to do the habit increases greatly. Let’s not start with that barrier.
Also, the habit you choose needs to be specific. It can’t be vague. For example, don’t say that you want to exercise. Say you want to run for five minutes a day right after you drink coffee in the morning. Don’t say you want to drink more water. Say you’re going to drink a glass of water when you eat lunch.
If the habit is vague, there’s no way to know whether you’re doing it. And as such, you’ll do it well on some days and not very well on other days.
You should have a measurable change. For example, are you going to do ten push-ups, five minutes of meditation, floss once at night, wake up fifteen minutes earlier, de-clutter ten things from your home a day?
Vague habits fail. Specific ones are likely to succeed.
2. Come up with a plan. Take one week to pick your specific habit (start as small as possible), pick a trigger, plan out how you’ll overcome your obstacles, plan who your support network will be, create a log for the habit, pick rewards, and decide what your motivations are. Write down these plans!
3. Do the habit immediately after the trigger for four to six weeks. Build in reminders. Try never to skip doing what you hope to make a habit. The more consistent you are, the stronger the habit will be. What you want to do is create a strong bond between the trigger and the new habit. Each time the trigger happens, you need to perform the new habit. It has to be conscious and deliberate at first, but over time this gets easier, and the new habit becomes almost automatic.
4. Build in positive feedback. Focus on enjoyment, make it a game, create com-petition, or do it with a partner or group if possible. Here are some good ways to build in positive feedback:
• Enjoy the habit. This is the most effective way. If the habit you want to form is running, do what you can to enjoy the time you spend running—this could mean listening to music, running with a partner, or running on a trail that inspires or relaxes you.
• Announce your success after the habit. After you go for your walk (a new habit), post about it on Facebook, Twitter, or your blog or tell a friend.
People congratulate you. You feel great.
• Do something enjoyable immediately after the habit. If you like to check email but want to write for ten minutes a day, check email right after you write for ten minutes (but not before).
5. Report daily to a social group (e.g., blog, Twitter, Facebook, email, or friends at work). Use the group for support when things get difficult. When you feel like not doing the habit, have one or more people you can call on for help. A social group is built-in positive feedback, as well as motivation through accountability.
Here are a few notes:
• Find a group you care about. This might be your friends on Facebook or Twitter. It might be your blog readers or members of an online forum. You might have friends, family, or colleagues you can email. Every single time you do the habit, report to the group immediately after. When you’re done with your ten-minute run, for example, get into the house, drink a glass of water, and then go to your computer and report it. Or tell your spouse and kids if that’s your accountability group.
• If you don’t do the habit for some reason, still report it. Commit to reporting either way, no matter what. It will greatly increase your odds of success.
6. Test, adjust, repeat immediately. When you start a habit change, you are test-ing an approach, and it is very possible it will fail. That’s fine. Knowtest-ing that your initial approach didn’t work is good information, and you should use it to adjust your approach and retry it as soon as possible.
Once you’ve formed the habit, you are primed for pursuing any future goals. Just remember to start small, increase gradually, and keep it fun.