According to researchers at Duke University, habits account for about 40 percent of our behaviors on any given day. To be honest, I doubt that this research is accurate because when you come to think of it, did we really use our brain to think and make conscious decisions for 60% of EVERY SINGLE THNIG we do in a day? For most people, we repeat work lives from Monday to Friday and the only difference between today and yesterday could only be our breakfast, lunch and dinner (and perhaps the content we consume each day, even the social media that we visit would be governed by habits). Therefore, in my own informal observation, the percentage should be higher — at least 50% (probably more in most people).
In any event, it is crucial that we learn how to build a new habit.
In this article, I am going to break down the steps of how I build new habits in real life (that sticks). This article is made up of 3 parts:
(i) the basis of my sharing on how to build a new habit
(ii) 4 steps in building a new habit
(iii) sharing an inspiring quote that keep me going
Part 1:
I am basing this sharing on my recent experiences of -
(i) building a daily meditation habit. As you may know, daily meditation is widely acknowledged as one of the hardest habits to build because we could easily fall asleep or feel bored during the meditation practice, hence easily give it up before a habit is formed.
(ii) building a habit of regular exercises (my definition of regular: at least 3 times a week, except when I am sick).
(iii) building a habit of output (e.g. consecutive 21 days IG posts, or consecutive 30 days blog post writing)
(iv) building a habit of reading (my definition of reading: either inspectional reading or analytical reading — more details available in my book review <How to read a book>)
** I don’t start with building all the above mentioned habits all at once, they are the evidential basis of this article and of the steps of building a new habit that I would like to share with you, but I start each habit one-by-one (and you are recommended to do so too).
Part 2:
In essence, I have summed up the formula to building a new habit to:
“1 small habit, 1%, 1 more chance, once again”
Step 1: Start with an incredibly small habit.
Pick a tiny habit to start with.
E.g. I wanted to start building the habit of exercising. Instead of starting with 30 minutes exercise per day, I started with just 5 mins.
When I started to build the habit of meditation, instead of starting with 10 minutes meditation, I started with only 1 minute daily.
The benefit of that is — it is so hard saying no to completing the habit because it is simply too easy to do.
Step 2: Increase the habit in baby step
One percent improvements each day add up to 37.78x times better in a year.
To make it easier to stick to your habit for good, give yourself permission for gradual baby step improvement rather than immediate success.
In Atomic Habit, James Clear used the story of Dave Brailsford, the new performance director for British Cycling team who, instead of demanding the cyclists to wake up and be the amazing cyclists that he hope they would be, committed to “the aggregation of marginal gains” and insisted the cyclists to improve by 1% each time.
Following that philosophy, he only made small adjustments to the cycling team each time for them to achieve that 1% improvement — e.g. he hired a surgeon to teach each rider the best way to wash their hands to reduce the chances of catching a cold, he determined the type of pillow and mattress that led to the best night’s sleep for each rider, he asked riders to wear electrically heated overshorts to maintain ideal muscle temperature while riding etc.
While many may have overlooked these little tiny thing that caused the 1% differences, these hundreds of other small improvements accumulated, and the results came faster than anyone could have imagined.
Just five years after Brailsford took over, the British Cycling team won an astounding 60 percent of the gold medals in the road and track cycling events at the 2008 Olympic Games. This result needs to compare with the team’s previous performance: Since 1908, British riders had won just a single gold medal at the Olympic Games.
And it’s not a one time success. During the ten-year span from 2007 to 2017, British cyclists won 178 world championships and 66 Olympic or Paralympic gold medals and captured 5 Tour de France victories in what is widely regarded as the most successful run in cycling history.
Too often, we convince ourselves that the success we want must come from doing something massive, something big, yet big changes are exactly the reason why we stay stuck and feel the most resistance about.
Yet it is the small improvement that gives the real result.
When I improve on the habit of exercising, I continue with the 5 mins habit, but on every other day, I would do 8 mins instead of 5 mins.
And then as I feel more comfortable and getting used to exercising, I increase that to : 5 mins habit, plus on every other day work out 10 mins.
And after a while, 10 mins daily.
Step 3: When you slip, get back on track quickly.
We shouldn’t avoid failure. Rather, we should plan for it.
Take some time to consider what could possibly happen to prevent you from completing your new habit.
What are the things that may get in your way?
What are some daily emergencies that are likely or have pulled you off course?
If you have slipped on some days, mark down the reason why so — e.g. when I was sick and feeling unwell, I would stop the habit of exercising.
And as soon as I am well, I would bounce back and get back on track.
It is not a failure to not be able to complete the new habit. In fact, noting down the reason will give us insights on whether we need to adjust our frequency of the new habit or find other ways to continue to reap the benefit of it.
Step 4: Be patient and stick to a pace you can sustain.
Instead of limiting myself to build the new habit within 1 week or 1 month, I give myself full permission to start from tiny step (#1) and gradually add on the new habit in a way of minimal resistance as I am getting used to it (#2).
Moreover, avoid blaming yourself or considering it a failure when you slip on some days as long as you can get back on track or find other ways to keep it going (#3)
All these require patience with ourselves and patience show we can eventually find and stick to a pace and intensity that is sustainable to us to perform over the long run (i.e. talking about years and even decades). Because long term is really where the compounding effect of the habit will show a significant difference in result.
Therefore, when starting and building a new habit, we should avoid short-sightedness in accomplishing the habit in the next week or month. On the contrary, finding and in due course sticking to a sustainable pace is what we should aim for with regards to the new habit (assuming of course that it is one that will cause positive effect to our life).
In short, sustainability is the goal for building a new habit.
Part 3:
This quote really keep me going when I feel like quitting:
“Success is a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day.”
— Jim Rohn
And I hope it inspires you too.
Follow the 4 steps and you will also be able to build any new habit as easy as possible.
Book recommendation: “Atomic Habits” by James Clear
That’s the end of my sharing this time, hope you benefit from it. See you in the next article!
Connie is an Active Reader, Creator to 1 framework “Sustainable Simplified Soulful”, 3 programs “Rich Brain Installation, Knowledge to Cash, Easy Passive Investing”, Author to 1 book “Design your Day: How to Achieve More in a Day than Most Do in a Year”, Host at “Simplified Business Show” podcast. She shares about book recommendations, new learnings, and principles that she learned and practised in business and life.
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