How to develop habits in 8 easy steps

Written by Stuart Haden on May 10, 2017

One great way to indicate that learning that has taken place is the formation of habit. Not an action plan at the end of the course, a one hit wonder that has little or no sustainability. Instead a practice that you can adapt and adopt perhaps even on a daily basis. Loads of great research has been done recently, and as usual here I am handing it over to you in a short and sharp video. I’ll follow this up a 2 weeks time with a killer app for tracking habits.

1.Do you need to make or break a habit? So often we look to action, however, we might need to break a habit before forming a new (positive) one.

2.Consider all aspects of life – soul, body, heart, mind & spirit. Don’t take any shortcuts, working with all these energy sources might stretch you where you need it most.

3.The Habit Loop – cue, routine, reward. You might need to hack your current situation, make sure your reward doesn’t undo all your good work!?

4.Set a very easy starting point. Don’t get carried away, make sure the habit is so easy you can’t fail.

5.Quantify your habit with numbers. Without numbers that ego of yours might find a way out, this also gives you the direction you need.

6.Work on the habit for as long as it takes to become a ritual. Ensure it becomes something you’re pulled towards, rather than requiring willpower.

7.Make very small additions to the habit, anchored to a ritual. Then you can make incremental changes.

8.Log and track your intentions. This is a proven motivational technique for many of us, my next posting will showcase the Streaks app.