The Power of...

Have you ever described yourself, or someone else, as “type A” or “type B?” Typically a “type A” is classified as someone who is organized, competitive, and ambitious. Type B tends to be on the opposite side of the spectrum with a more relaxed personality and free-spiritedness. Both are great, however, there is something to be said about the productiveness and efficiency of having a routine. In the past, I would never set a schedule or a routine for myself, causing my mind to be all over the place, everything being half-accomplished, and productivity being low. Once I established and committed to a routine, a routine that incorporated healthy habits, I am now able to accomplish more than I ever imagined. We all have the same twenty-four hours in a day, how do you choose to use yours?

When you do things daily, you WILL become better at them AND more efficient. Read that again. When you do things daily, you WILL become better at them AND more efficient. The efficiency comes from the tasks becoming second nature and being done without much thought. This allows your brain to conserve power and focus on things that matter. It may sound silly, but wasting time and energy on making small decisions about what to eat or what to wear can take away from your available energy. As Michael from the TV Show, The Office would say K.I.S.S. or Keep It Simple Stupid. If you see any of my videos on social media, you will know that wearing the color black is my thing. I keep it simple and don’t waste time and energy on what to wear every single day. I make it sound pretty easy but remember, establishing a routine or a new habit is not always easy - It takes time, dedication, and consistency.?

Now that we know the power of routines and consistency, it’s time to look at our habits. We all have them - both good and bad. A good habit, for example, would be going to the gym every day. If this is one of your habits, you’re sticking with it because it helps you stay fit, feel better, and have more energy. But how can we change bad habits like eating fast food every day? Well, every habit you have, whether it’s positive or negative in your life, follows the same three-step pattern. In Charles Duhigg’s best-selling book, The Power of Habit, he refers to these three steps I’m going to share with you as the “Habit Loop.”

In this book, Duhigg refers to the three steps of forming habits:

1. Cue (or reminder) — The trigger that initiates the behavior
2. Routine — The actual behavior itself and the action you take
3. Reward — The benefit you receive from the action you take

So, let’s say you have a good habit in place of going to the gym every day. Your alarm goes off in the morning which CUES the trigger to tell you to go to the gym. You go, complete your workout ROUTINE, and then are REWARDED with the great feeling of accomplishment and a rush of serotonin. Now, a bad habit, for example, might be that you go to a donut shop when you wake up in the morning. Your body reminds you that you’re hungry, your routine is that you go and eat the donut, and your reward comes from fulfilling that need for a sugar rush.

As you can see, both good and bad habits follow the same pattern. Once we become aware of our habits and start to understand them, we can change them. Write down your habits, and see which ones you want to keep and which ones you want to remove. Recognize the cues for why you do them, and then make a plan to change the things that you do not want in your life. As I said earlier, change takes time and is not easy, so keep in mind that you will fail at times — you just have to keep going and working at it.

With patience and dedication, you can reshape any habit into what you want it to be to serve you better. Charles Duhigg’s golden rule of habit is to keep the same cue and same reward but to replace the routine within the habit. This may sound confusing, but I’ll explain it to you in this four-step process:

Identify the routine, experiment with different rewards, isolate the cue, and have a plan.

If you go to Starbucks every afternoon to get coffee and a donut, this is considered your routine. Your reward is what’s satisfying your craving, and this can be tricky to understand because sometimes we don’t necessarily know what our craving is or what’s driving our behavior. Is your reward the coffee, the donut, the energy you receive, or maybe the time away to socialize or relax? Figure this out by adjusting your reward.

When you go to Starbucks, instead of getting the donut, just get coffee, then try socializing for ten minutes. Try going for a walk when your typical “coffee break” time comes, and see if that fulfills that craving for energy or time away. Take the time to discover which activity is going to satisfy your craving, and isolate the cue. What are you thinking the moment you decide to go to Starbucks? Write your thoughts down — do you feel hungry, bored, tired, etc.?

Have a plan in place so that you can decide exactly what you will do when your craving hits, and then move forward from there. This four-step process will take time, but once you can identify the cue and implement your plan, it will work. Habits create our destiny, and many people don’t live the way that they want to but aren’t sure how to fix the problem.

Once we know that we can change our bad habits, we have the power to create any good habit that we want.

Think about the six steps and try to implement them into your own life. Whether you’re training to become a star athlete or you’re starting a new company - become a champion in whatever you do. The power of habit is huge, but changing regular routines and habits can’t happen overnight. Follow the process and continuously work at it and eventually, you can make lasting changes. Take the time to evaluate your life and create habits and routines that allow you to become the greatest and most successful version of yourself. It will be worth it, I promise.

Best,

BTA