5 habit hacks you need to know
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Let’s check in: how well have you been doing with either your new years resolutions or general new good habits you wanted to implement or bad habits you wanted to stop?
Whether you set yourself the goal of going to the gym 3-4 a week or to stop smoking, both requires a form of unlearning of the old system and then replacing it with the new. It doesn’t even matter whether you went full on cold turkey or adjusted over time, that underlying process is the same, just less dramatic in one of them.
If you’re struggling with your habits or new routines, this post is for you, as I will share 5 habit hacks that will help you on this journey. But also if you have been successful so far, you might learn some additional ways that can help you stick to your changes for longer.
In fact. Research states it takes on average 66 days to make a habit truly stick, as this provides enough time to fully adjust to this new behaviour pattern. But this is just a number and no guaranteed promise that you just have to make it to the last day and then you can forget about it. It’s not reaching that last day that’s the goal, but to learn to love who you are becoming thanks to your changes.
Which brings me to the first one:
Build the habit to do the habit - specifically if it is something completely new that you are implementing into your current routine.
Because the first habit you got to build is to actually show up to do it, whether it is showing up to the gym, showing up to spend more time outside, showing up to the book club, show up for yourself and make yourself a priority to do the thing in question.
Here’s how you can practise exactly that:
Practise showing up to do the things you set out to do, and make it ridiculously simple. That could look like going to the gym even without the intent to train, just show up, or you go outside for 2 minutes, or you go into the kitchen and fill your cup. I can hear you literally thinking right now: “But when I do that, I might as well, train, walk or drink the water?” Exactly. But also if you don’t, which is totally fine btw, you at least showed up. And that’s what we are practising right now.
For example, when I was writing my book, I made it a habit to show up for it in the form of writing every day anyway, at first not at the same time and definitely not with the purpose of writing the actual book. But to just write. Whether that is a new blogpost, an article on LinkedIn, or an email to my email fam or just simply journaling in my notebook. For the last 4 years, not one day went by where I didn't write. So then when it came to really rolling up my sleeves and showing up to write my debut book, I already had that practice and discipline done and dusted.
And if you are thinking right now, how on earth do I even get the motivation to show up?
Well, that comes with Hack 2: Have a stong intrinsic motivation, or in simpler words have a strong WHY you want to work out, write that book or drink more water. If it doesn’t motivate you enough, you don’t want it bad enough, so rework it, make it irresistible. This will kickstart your endevours and help you to build the discipline to keep on going.
You can also see it as making it part of your new identity and who you want to become. If you align your why based on where you want to be, the motivation hits differently than if you think about it only from where you are now.
Because as you change and evolve, you transform into your best version of yourself that no longer has those bad habits. Which means, If you see yourself as a couch potato you will have a hard time turning into a gymbunny. So start identifying as a gymbunny instead, and adjust your behaviour accordingly, how are you being as that version of you? What do you do?
Now you know why you do it, and you are ready to show up to actually do the thing. So the next hack is to take babysteps. When you start playing an instrument, you don’t immediately go an play Mozart or Bach, you play simple notes and melodies at first.
It’s the same with anything else, make it easy and make every step you take count, small or big. Whether you take a “pebble-stone step” or jump over a rock, they all count towards you reaching the peak of that mountain. You can even go as far and put one thing only for the day onto your to-do list. And then celebrate the heck out of achieving that. Everything else you get done that day is a bonus, but you most definitely got the most important thing out of the way, and that’s what counts. It also will take a lot of pressure off your shoulders and you don’t get hung up in the “Overdoer” mentality.
So key here is to break the action down into the smallest steps possible, and go from there. Over time you can increase the difficulty until you reach mastery in form of autopilot.
In addition, don’t try to change your whole life all at once, and instead implement one change at a time. Which is HACK 4. I’m 100% sure you have been there, you wanted to change up your whole routine, made big plans, stuck with it for 2-3 days, got exhausted, missed a day, and then dropped it because you couldn’t be bothered anymore as it was just too hard
Start with one change at a time, break it down into more manageable steps, use accountability structures to keep you going and celebrate every time you did it with listening to your fave song, a cup of your fave tea, a mini-meditation, whatever feels like a mini-celebration to you
And I wanna share with you two fun ways you can try out to make it easier to stick to one new habit at a time:
Habit Stacking:
What is something you already do every day anyway? For example: Brushing your teeth.
To play this mini-game you set yourself the challenge that every time after you brush your teeth, you will drink a glass of water. Then after you drink your glass of water, you will put on your gym clothes and so on.
The formula for this is super simple:
After I (current habit), I will (new habit).
The other option would be to pay yourself:
Create an incentive through paying yourself to follow through with your commitment. Think of something you have wanted to buy for a really long time, but never really felt like the purchase would be justified. That could be that really cool armchair that would be an amazing statement piece in your house, or it could be some artwork of your favourite artist you had your eyes on for years, it could also be a weekend trip you wanted to take your partner on for so long. Choose something that excites you and figure out how much money you need to save, to get it. Then decide how much you are going to pay yourself, every time you complete the action.
For example: You want to purchase an armchair which costs £300. Your goal is to move your body in any shape or form every day for at least 30 minutes, because you want to feel healthy and energised. You decide every time you do it, you pay yourself £2. So overall you will need to show up and do the thing 150x. It’s as easy as that.
What is important to mention tho is that obviously life just lifes, and unexpected things happen or plans change. You might get sick, your sister needs you or your partner planned a surprise date for you and you have to skip a day.
However, the hack here is Never miss twice
Skipping once, fine, happens, skipping twice? Absolute no-go except for more severe cases like you being ill for example, but even then consistency is in coming back once you feel better. You only ever truly fail, when you give up fully and not pick it back up again.
If you find it hard to come back to it, get curious and ask yourself is it because you don’t have the discipline yet to keep going and work through those self-sabotaging thoughts, or could it be your “why” isn’t strong enough, then go back and make it stronger, or maybe your priorities or your available time have changed because you got a new job, instead of having that be a reason to stop your habit, adapt it as you go so you can keep on doing it. For example one of my clients noticed that it works best for her to have two smaller workouts during the day rather than one long one in the morning. It’s all about finding what works best for you and adapt as needed. But there’s always a way.
Ok, to sum it up, the 5 habit hacks that you need to know are:
1.Build the habit to the habit
2.Have a strong intrinsic motivation, make it part of your identity
3 and 4. Start simple and with babysteps, don’t change your whole routine, change one aspect at a time and go from there.
5. Never miss twice
James Clear put it this way in his book “Atomic Habits”: Whenever you want to change your behavior, you can simply ask yourself: How can I make it obvious? How can I make it attractive? How can I make it easy? How can I make it satisfying?"
In other words, how can you make it unavoidable, super fun, simple and feel amazing. If you for some reason, don’t find a way that ticks the box on any of these 4 questions, then ask yourself how you can set yourself up for success to build the discipline that keeps you going. And I would especially recommend to have a strong intrinsic motivation that is highly linked to your aspirational identity.
Choose one of the hacks and try it out for at least a week and see how it goes. I highly recommend not doing them all at once, so you can find what truly works best for you and feel free to adapt as needed.
If you struggle with building habits it’s not because you suck at them, but because you have a limiting belief that stands in the way. Let’s work together to free the way to your next level!
