Introduction 

• I wonder if there is anybody in this world who always has 100% happiness in themselves? If you are such a person then please do get in contact, I’d love to speak to you and hear your secret. For the rest of us, there is always something we want to improve about ourselves.
• Admittedly the spectrum is large. Some people wish they could change everything about themselves almost constantly, others have that small niggling thing that sometimes gets to them.
• I probably sit in the middle of this spectrum, most of the time I’m happy with where I’m at and what I’m doing but there are constantly a couple of things I wish I could sort/accomplish, and the optimal way to do so, I’ve learnt, is through the creation of good habits and routines.
• The aim of this piece is to highlight the theory of (good!) habit formulation, how I have responded to the theory to create my good habits and to highlight the tricks/techniques I have used to create the habits and routines which for a long time eluded me – hopefully they’ll work for you as well!
• Bad habits are often an equal partner in stopping you achieving your desired ‘happiness’ however I won’t discuss these in detail here, instead I will be posting a separate blog on crushing bad habits soon, watch this space.

5 steps to habit formation (the theory) 

• First I’ll start with the theory, based on a large amount of reading I’ve done on the topic and through my own application, I’ve boiled it down to 5 key steps:
• Translate goal into a behaviour 
  • How it helped me: I am genetically very lucky, I am 6ft 4ins and my ‘natural’ weight it probably 80kg and 11% body fat. However I wanted to be leaner and stronger, and wanted to accentuate my swimmer V body, fundamentally I want to be 85-90kg and 8% body fat. That was my dream and to achieve I needed a tangible action plan. For me this was to go to the gym 3 times a week for an hour doing 80% weights, 20% cardo. Creating the behaviour/tangible action isn’t always easy, but is fundamental. If you want to find out more information about my optimal gym exercises check out my post on that here: http://jablifestyle.net/2016/04/24/optimal-gym-exercises/
  • Overview: To be able to create a good habit you need to turn your dream/end goal into a tangible action
• Establish a clear context
  • How it helped me: I achieved this with my blog writing habit. I wanted to write for 30 minutes 5 to 6 times a week, not an easy thing to do when you work 10-12hr days which are already extremely full. Therefore to help myself, I brought a new laptop, completely separate to my work laptop for creating my blog content. I also created a good work space by my table which allows me to focus and get into the zone to start writing. I have also created a list of 30-50 songs (in constant flux) which help me continue sustained writing periods. Doing these things made it is as easy as possible for me to start blogging and continue to help get me mentality prepared and in the zone. All these things create the context for me to be able to create the content.
  • Overview: The next key way to create a good habit is to ensure you create the optimal context around the habit you want to build. The theory argues that to really establish the habit and for it to become a true habit, and not a hardship, you need to focus on the things surrounding the habit not just the habit itself.
• Develop a reliable cue 
  • How it helped me: I have always been good at brushing my teeth twice daily, but equally terrible at flossing. However I managed to create the habit of flossing daily with the addition of a very simply cue. I put a bowl of flossers on the shelf above my sink in the bathroom, next to my toothbrush. The simple act of moving the flossers from in the cupboard to next to my toothbrush had the almost instant effect I was looking for, I now have a 90-95% success rate of daily flossing.
  • Overview: Knowing what you need to do and creating the context for it isn’t rocket science, getting yourself to actually do it can be. That’s why you want to hack the process as much as possible, trick your brain into reminding yourself to do the thing you’re trying to make a good habit of. For example putting your gym shoes by the door. Or putting your fruit in plain sight and unhealthy snacks at the back of the cupboard.
• Create a powerful reinforcement 
  • How it helped me: I’m not great at positive reinforcement, I get in my own head and convince myself not going to the good habit is the right thing to do, therefore money is the most powerful reinforcement mechanism for me. As Tim Ferris often says; individuals would much rather not win money than lose it. Make a bet with a group of friends, if you don’t lose 5kg or run that 10k run in 2 months time you have to pay each of them £20. The most important thing about creating powerful reinforcement mechanisms, either positive or negative, is to try a few out and see what works for which habit.
  • Overview: Unfortunately creating a simple cue isn’t enough to create a good habit, you need that kick up the arse rather than the ‘nudge’ of a cue. The good news is that certain people aren’t just born being motivated and there are ways to hack the process. How about positive reinforcement; if you want to stop eating processed food why not say that at the end of each week you go without eating processed food your reward is to go to the spa and get a massage. If positive reinforcement doesn’t work what about social pressure. Tell 15 of your closest friends about your new habit and then every time you catch up and they ask about it, holding you accountable to your aim. If that doesn’t work put your money where your mouth is, both to win money or risk losing it.
• Repeat until it feels normal 
  • Overview: Think about most things you do, while you might not have wanted to make a habit out of them, through repetition things often become second nature. This holds for good habits as well as bad habits.
  • How it helped me: As I’ve mentioned, I work long days and didn’t think it would be possible for me to be able to get a mid-week gym session in alongside having down time and spending time with my girlfriend and friends. However, once I’d forced myself to go to the gym on a Wednesday evening for 3 or 4 weeks on the trot I realised it was easily possible and I felt much better for it. I’m not saying it only took 3-4 weeks to become a second nature habit, if I’m honest I still don’t think that’s come after 3 months. However each time you do it, and importantly each time you do it consecutively without missing one, the easier it becomes.
  • Above I’ve detailed the 5 steps I believe exist to creating a good habit. I don’t think they are sequential steps necessarily, but being conscious of each of them as you progress through habit formation will definitely help you.

My Additional Tricks/Techniques 

• Will power alone won’t always be enough, and while reading and understanding the theory above will definitely help, it won’t always be enough either. Therefore I want to share with you the little tricks and techniques I use to help supplement what I’ve detailed above.
• I find the following applications, methods, tricks are of considerable help:
  • Coach.me – A useful app to track bad and good habits. Set goals on the app and check in every day to log what you’ve achieved. Personally, I love making and ticking things off a to do list, Coach.me is the best app I’ve seen to help me do that, it gives me an extra boost of happiness and motivation, it’s extremely easy and quick to use  and it’s FREE!
  • Get a friend involved – Nobody likes suffering along. Convince a friend to join you in picking up a good habit. Twice the people means double the motivation, double the pressure and less of the overall effort. Getting a friend on board hits at least two of the steps highlighted above, develop a reliable clue and create a positive reinforcement
  • Journaling – Buying a little notebook and writing up your thoughts/feelings/experiences about the progression you’re making picking up your new habit is an excellent technique. This works along a similar line as creating a powerful reinforcement, having to write up and admit to any failures is an extra pressure and can even be the extra drive required to keep you on track.
  • Visual the end goal – In the hard times remember how good it’ll be when the habit is formed and you don’t have to force yourself on a daily basis to stay on track. There are many different ways to view this. It could be the lovely holiday you’ll go on with the money you’ve saved from enforcing a budgeting plan. Or it could be the pride you’ll feel when you’ve coded your first website with your newly acquired coding skills. What you actually visualise isn’t the important bit, it’s remembering the end goal that is.

• The above are just the tricks/techniques which have helped me over the years, there are obviously more out there, so do some testing and experimenting. The important thing about these tricks/techniques is that they can be used with any of the steps I’ve detailed earlier, they can be the extra boost that’s needed to keep you on track.

Conclusion 

• Overall, turning something from a desire to a conscious habit is no easy thing, yet everybody has the ability to do it. Throughout our lives we have all picked up 100s if not 1000s of habits without even realising it, many of which we don’t actually want! I honestly believe that all it takes to create a new (good!) habit is a knowledge and understanding of the 5 steps detailed above and the addition of a small number of tricks or techniques which work personally for you to help boost motivation, make it easier and more enjoyable. The final thing you’ll need is a large amount of willpower and the drive to get back up and try again if you fall off the wagon because it’ll almost certainly happen at some point.

 

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