Do you have a goal?
You want to achieve it, but like every year, when you make a resolution, after January, your resolution falls apart?
Tell me… what is your goal?
Better sleep? Move more? Less stress? Get back in shape? Lose weight smartly and healthily? Learn something new?
Whatever your goal, the goal is never the problem. The mystery lies in the path to reach it. The best way to get there and maintain it is to integrate a new habit in your daily life.
What is a habit?
Do you ever find yourself wondering, "What should I have for a snack this afternoon?" A habit, in this case healthy snack, avoids asking these questions and taking the path we wouldn’t want to take (this path possibly being a bag of chips, a bowl of ice cream, or even a chocolate bar!). Habit is therefore a mental shortcut, a discipline, that bypasses the decision-making part of the action. It is firmly embedding a behavior into one’s days, without the need for reflection.
By turning a behavior into a habit, you free yourself from a mental load to have to make a decision!
The power of habit
A well-established habit will take you much further in your results that an action, and this, regardless of the scale of importance of the action. The multiplication actions will be the winning element here!
I give you an example.
A person gets into the habit of walking quickly for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week. This person burns about 150 calories per day.
The other person has a goal: to run a 5 km Color Run, extremely enjoyable races, let's be honest. Their run will have allowed them to burn at least 265 calories.
In the end, the person who walks 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, will have burned 39,000 calories in a year.
It can be assumed that the person who signed up for the color run trained a bit during the year, but in the end, the person with an ingrained habit will have done physical activity more often than the one who did the race.
Here, an achievement is compared to a lifestyle. The lifestyle will have a much greater IMPACT in the end than the achievement, because it endures over time.
How to form a habit?
To integrate a new habit into our daily life, it is not enough to focus on the action. But rather on the WHY We want to integrate this habit into our lives. What are the benefits we will gain from it?
Scientifically speaking, integrating a new behavior into our daily routine takes an average of 66 repetitions, so a little over two months. According to Jean-François Villeneuve, a psychologist specializing in lifestyle habit changes, setting a 21-day goal can be a good source of motivation and has the advantage of giving time to realize the benefits that the new behavior can bring you, but it is generally not enough to firmly establish a habit. He believes that it is rather 6 months of sustained effort that are necessary.
So, what does it take?
On the one hand, a why, a reason why you want to adopt a new behavior. And if this reason "fits" with your values, you will have an even better chance of succeeding. Then, it takes a plan and effort.
The acronym SMART is a motivation tool often used in management. With this tool, we ensure that our goal is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound – with a set deadline.
Specific : define a goal, an action, simple.
Measurable : it is necessary to be able to measure the achievement of the objective.
Reachable : It is better to set small achievable goals, which you can divide into different steps, to reach them more effectively.
Realistic : Can you afford it? Have you chosen an impossible goal to achieve?
Temporal : A measure must be set over time.
Then, it's all well and good to have defined the goal in a SMART way. But, for my part, I thought there was something missing to start the habit loop… and I found this…
A book has been written on the subject by James Clear: A little thing can change everything. The author invites us to adopt good habits by making small changes, slowly and gradually. Simply put, there are 4 steps to go through:
- The signal : the trigger, generally external (e.g., an alarm)
- The (insatiable) desire : the feeling established to WANT to take action.
- The answer : the action!
- The reward : something positive, either physical or mental, that rewards you for having completed your action.
But above all, it invites us to make the habit flagrant, attractive, easy to make and pleasant ». Here is THE preparation that will ensure you turn all your small changes into habits, one by one.
The 4 laws of behavior change
Flagrante
It is through the « flagrant » that we define the SMART. We write on a sheet what we are currently doing in our current schedule, our timetable. You can remove what is superfluous. Then, you add your new habit to your schedule, at a specific time. And just below, you reserve the space for your reward. And you need to arrange your environment according to your new goal.
For example: You want to start doing a little yoga every day! You can set up a yoga space in your area, a cozy spot to place your mat, perhaps with an essential oil diffuser.
You need to decide what time you will do it. In the morning before work? Then, get up earlier, eat, start at such and such time, and afterwards, take a nice hot shower, with a good nourishing snack in the morning. If it’s later, set a reminder on your phone so you don’t forget.
Attractive
Make the action « attractive is often the most complex part, but also the most rewarding. You can link an action you already do to your new action. Everything needs to flow smoothly. "After lunch, yoga!" Then, you can join a group of people for whom it’s a lifestyle, to make it even more enjoyable, maybe sign up for a class. And create a motivation ritual for yourself, do something truly motivating. just before to take action. "A square of dark chocolate motivates you all the time? Why not enjoy your square every time you take out your mat?"
Easy to make
To make your habits « easy to make », you just need to make them easy to do. If every time you want to do your yoga session you have to rearrange your living room, you won’t make it a habit because it will be tedious to start. Make everything simple and automatic.
Pleasant
And finally, it must be made « playful ». You need to learn to reward yourself healthily right after your action, and keep track of your weekly habits. It can be as simple as an X on the calendar or a log in your planner. There will be times when you miss a day, and that’s okay. Relapses are normal (hmm, we know the “cheat day,” right?), it will happen, it’s written in the stars! You just shouldn’t break the chain twice in a row.
After 2 months, you should have established a new routine!
So, what is your goal?
References:
- Le temps nécessaire pour changer une habitude est souvent mal compris. Contrairement à la croyance populaire qui suggère qu'il faut 21 jours pour adopter un nouveau comportement, des études récentes montrent que la durée peut varier considérablement selon les individus et la nature de l'habitude. En réalité, il faut en moyenne 66 jours pour qu'un nouveau comportement devienne automatique, mais ce délai peut aller de 18 à 254 jours. Il est donc important de faire preuve de patience et de persévérance lorsqu'on cherche à modifier ses habitudes..
- Clear, James, A little thing can change everything! : micro-actions, mega-impact... : tiny changes will transform your life, Éditions Larousse, 2019.