The habits we cultivate shape our lives.
They serve as the foundation for many positive aspects of our existence. Our habits influence how regularly we engage in mindfulness, our workout routines, and our ability to focus completely on our tasks. They enhance our interactions with others, allowing us to connect with compassion and genuine attention.
However, our habits can also lead to many difficulties in our lives. They trap us in counterproductive behaviors, such as consuming an entire pint of ice cream, spending excessive time scrolling through social media, or disconnecting from the present moment when we are with loved ones.
As we enter the New Year, it’s common to focus solely on ambitions, results, and resolutions. While these aspects are significant, it’s crucial to reflect on the deeper habits that either hold you back or enable meaningful change.
How can you cultivate beneficial habits? Here are three effective approaches:
Three Evidence-Based Strategies for Forming Healthy Habits This New Year
Step 1: Assess Your Current Habit Framework
One of the most influential management scientists, Edward Deming, famously stated, “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” Take a moment to reflect on this idea.
This means that your habitual system is currently “perfectly designed” to create the negative patterns you wish to alter. If you find it difficult to maintain an exercise routine, it’s due to your existing habits being organized in a way that prevents you from working out. If you can’t carve out time for meditation, it’s because your current routine is structured to keep you from training your mind.
What existing habits are obstructing your progress? What new habits could facilitate the changes you seek?
This leads to an essential question: what outcomes do you want to achieve? For example, do you want to be more mindful, experience fewer distractions, show more kindness, or watch less television? These are the changes you hope to see.
Next, delve deeper to identify the habit modifications needed to attain these outcomes. This presents another critical question: which current habits are hindering your progress? What new habits can foster the transformations you desire?
Step 2: Create New Habits by Building on Existing Ones
Now that you have some new habits in mind to support the changes you wish to implement, the next challenge is: how will you establish these new habits?
Through our work with high achievers and executives, we’ve discovered that an effective way to develop new habits is to, as habit specialist James Clear suggests, “stack” them on top of habits you already have.
For instance, if you aim to reduce phone distractions, you might initially think, “I will avoid my phone entirely in the evenings.” However, linking this new habit to an existing behavior is a far more effective approach. For example: “After I walk in the door and take off my jacket in the evening, I’ll set my phone to Do Not Disturb mode.” This method not only connects the new habit to a familiar one (removing your coat upon entering), it also includes a specific action—an essential tactic to help habits become ingrained. Instead of vaguely declaring, “I’ll try to use my phone less,” focus on a concrete action like “switching my phone to Do Not Disturb.”
The journey to transforming your life hinges more on the process of habit formation than on the individual habit itself.
There are numerous ways to apply this strategy in daily life. You might turn your walk into the office into an opportunity for practicing mindfulness, use slowing down at stop signs or red lights to take a couple of deep breaths, or use the start of a meal as a cue to express gratitude.
The options are plentiful with this straightforward strategy: integrate your new habit with existing routines so that it becomes part of your everyday life.
Step 3: Establish and Maintain Your New Habits with the Four C’s
The last step involves the application of the Four C’s of habit formation to deeply embed these new habits in your daily life.
- Start Small. This critical piece of advice stems from Stanford professor BJ Fogg’s research, which recommends beginning with a goal that is realistically attainable. For instance, meditating for just five minutes a day is more effective than attempting to reach an hour and risking early disappointment. Avoid setting unrealistic New Year’s goals that could lead to failure within days due to their enormity. Focus on the habit-building process, not just the outcome.
- Commit Fully. Make a complete commitment to establishing your new habit. Interestingly, it’s easier to devote 100% of your effort to a new habit than to only 99%. That 1% can lead to justifications like “I’ll skip it this once.” A 100% commitment eliminates this internal debate. Our experiences with thousands of individuals reveal that this is a key strategy for creating new habits.
- Establish a Consistent Cue. Reflecting on habit stacking, having a “cue” can remind you to take action. Use an existing habit as your cue to help trigger your new habit. For example, if your goal is to be more present and less distracted, create a habitual cue, such as waking up, going to sleep, ascending stairs, waiting at stoplights, riding in lifts, or standing in line at the store.
- Celebrate! Just take a few moments to enjoy the experience. Relish the sensation of connecting with your breath or the pleasure derived from engaging in the new activity you fully committed to.
Thus, as the world buzzes with discussions about goals, outcomes, and New Year’s resolutions, keep in mind that genuine change and progress are achieved through the careful construction of habitual systems that pave the way for new outcomes.