Habits - The Easy and Fun Way to Sticky & Long-Term Change

I want to talk about developing long-term habits that are awesome, fulfilling and purposeful.?

We all have bad habits, and good habits.?

Many of us are trying to add in more good habits.?

Many times the bad habits can be pushed out because we have so many good habits.?

With habit development, one suggestion shown in the book Tiny Habits (B.J. Fogg; An adjunct Professor at Stanford University, a researcher, and behavior scientists, 2019) talks about habit creation.?

Many of us have tried losing weight, creating income or spending more quality time with our family, however many times our habit ceases. The motivation is gone because we’ve only developed a short-term habit.

Usually we want to develop great long-term habits. With behavior change, he says we need very little motivation, the ability,? and a trigger.?

A trigger is something that cue’s you into starting a new habit.?

For example, he uses the example of either flossing his teeth or doing push-ups. So he used his existing habit of using the bathroom, then immediately doing a push-up. Or using the bathroom and then flossing one tooth, because it's a small habit.?

Then he celebrates that habit by saying “I'm awesome!”. Another powerful variation of this is using your whole body to express when you say “I'm awesome!”.?

When you really get into celebrating, and use your whole body, that's going to create an emotional connection which will increase the longevity of that habit, and the likelihood of it being a long-term habit.?

Or once you flush the toilet, then immediately do a push-up right after. (Now,? as a side note, I'd recommend washing your hands before you do a push up, but I digress…)

By doing this, B.J. has been able to go from doing one or two push-ups a day after flushing the toilet, to doing 50 to 70 push-ups a day, since he built up that small habit over time.?

Note again, when initially starting a habit, it's important to keep the habit extremely small and tiny.?

Some of the ways I do this is when I first get up in the morning, I go downstairs to exercise, read in a positive book, do a Bible devotion and pray.?

I didn't start off doing all those habits immediately. I had to build on them.?

So to clarify, I head straight downstairs to the exercise area and immediately pick up some weights and start exercising. It doesn't matter whether I do one rep or do 100 reps.?

But once I start, I naturally want to keep going and I don't need much motivation to keep going.?

Over time I've added in more small habits to that chain of habits… by doing some exercises, then reading in a book, a bible devotion, then adding in prayer.?

Another routine for me is drinking enough water on a daily basis, since I drink coffee WAAAAAY TOO MUCH. So now I drink water immediately before I go down to exercise. And therefore have linked the habit of drinking water, and then exercising.

By chaining those two activities, I have increased my likelihood of developing a long-term habit.?

I'm very successful at it now.?

A good formula for developing habits follows…

1. Have a trigger (some existing habit or reminder that starts the process).
2. Take action on the new small habit.
3. Celebrate immediately after.

So, first decide a trigger, like flushing the toilet in the earlier example, then do a push-up, then celebrate with full emotion saying I'm awesome. By doing that, you're going to create some awesome long-term habits.?

What habits could you easily develop for your…

1. Business?
2. Work?
3. Sales?
4. Health?
5. Exercise?
6. Nutrition?
7. Quality family time??

Start off small and continually develop that habit. Then chain (or link) it to the next habit.

Before you know it, you're going to be off to the races developing some high quality habits that are growth oriented.?

Let's create some tiny habits, take action!

Just play with it and have fun.??

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