4 Steps To Build Habits That Stick

How To Build Habits That Stick

We make our habits, then our habits make us. Cool analogy right? 🙌 

As cliche as it may sound, it is really true though. I feel nowadays, everyone pays more attention to overnight success, getting that one six, and then BOOM. Millionaire in a flash. But that’s not how life works! Krissy wake up...

More often than not, it’s about consistency and building productive habits that bring you closer to your goals in life. And that’s what we’ll talk about today! 👊

Today, you and I will go over:

• What are Habits? 🙄 yeah yeah you know what habits are.. but give this a chance
• The Power of Compounding 
• 4 Stages of a Habit - by James Clear
• Systems vs. Goals

P.S. A lot of what I covered here is inspired by the works of James Clear in his book ‘Atomic Habits’. I highly recommend you to give that a read! 📕

Now, let’s get started! 🙌

What are Habits?

First thing first, let’s go over the foundations: What is a ‘Habit’? How do you differentiate habits from behaviour? How much time does it take for a habit to form? 🤯

I can guarantee you've either never questioned your daily habits or didn't even think twice about doing something that's now a part of your daily routine... it was the same for me, until I did go through these questions and started differentiating habits from behaviour, and it's still WIP 🙏

So...What is a ‘Habit’?

By definition, a habit is a routine of behaviour that is repeated regularly and tends to occur subconsciously. In short (and simpler words), a habit is an action repeated soooo many times, it becomes second nature to you. 

A simple example: Brushing your teeth as a kid!

As a child, it feels AWFUL to get up every night and brush your teeth before bed. Now? Most probably it comes naturally to you. Unless you don’t mind a stinky breath of course🙊 

Habits vs. Behaviour

The way you differentiate a habit from a behaviour is quite straightforward. 

A habit is a part of your routine. Sleeping before 12am, making your bed as you wake up every morning, and so on. These actions come with MINIMUM mental effort. You don’t really think much about it when you’re doing it.  

On the other hand, a behaviour is an action that comes from a specific environment. An example could be that if you feel stressed, you might start biting your nails or start binge-eating. Behaviours are like the way we humans are pre-programmed to act in certain conditions.

How long does it take to build a habit?

A study was conducted on habit formation by the European Journal of Social Psychology. According to their research, it takes 66 days on average to form a habit from scratch. 

And as per Robin Sharma, these 66 days can be broken down into 3 phases of 22 days each.

• The first 22 days: Destruction 
• The middle 22 days: Installation
• The last 22 days: Integration

The first 22 days is an uphill battle between your new habits and your old habits. You want to "destroy" them. Hence, the name ‘Destruction’. In this phase, you’ll be challenged in the worst way possible. You may slip back into your old habits here and there, but you want to get back up strong! Think of it as your unlearning phase!

The middle 22 days is like a grey area. You won’t feel like doing anything extra. In fact, you’ll be more inclined to give up. Try being as disciplined as you can and see how you progress. This is where consistency is key! It’s hard but that’s what helps you get disciplined as you start re-learning!

The last 22 days are relatively the best. In this phase, it’ll be easier for you to follow the new habit compared to your old one. But don’t be overconfident!! This is an extremely crucial point. Make sure you’re consistent and you fully adapt to the new habit in your routine. 💪

The Power of Compounding

Remember how I mentioned people focus more on becoming an overnight success, and less on small, incremental changes? Yup. That’s what we’re gonna talk about here.

If we zoom out a little bit, think of our actions more on a yearly basis. We’ll realise that small improvements on a daily basis can go a LONG way in improving ourselves in the long run. James Clear calls it the ‘compound interest of time’. Sounds cool doesn’t it? 👏

If you try to improve yourself 1% everyday, you’ll end up improving by 37.78% after a whole year! These 1% actions won’t even feel important to you, when in fact they’re more important than you think. 

And I know how it feels to be stagnant. Nothing feels worse when you realise you’ve not grown at all. But lucky you, you can always start taking action Today! ↺

Speaking of action, let’s go over the 4 stages that actually make a habit.

4 Stages of Habits - by James Clear

This 4 step loop is the start and end of every habit you have. No matter what example you take, THIS is always the structure.

1- Cue 👀

The Cue is the step that starts it all. Consider it as a trigger or a source for any action, like eating, sleeping, working, etc. This part lightens up your brain and predicts a possible reward, hence you move forward to complete the action. 

2- Craving 😋

The Craving is our main motivation to complete any action. As we move closer to the reward, our minds tend to want it more. This applies to anything: Food, Sex, Social Acceptance, Growth, you name it!

Example: You begin a habit of exercising daily for 20-30 minutes so you do it for 6 days continuously. On the 7th day, your brain would feel a sense of accomplishment to work out since that’s the reward you’re craving!

3- Response 💬

This is one of, if not THE most important part to building any habit! 

The Response is the action you take after any craving. You can say our actions are directly related to our cravings, since you won’t take actions that don’t motivate or satisfy you. Makes sense? 

Pro-tip: Try keeping mini goals to build momentum for your habits. It becomes easier to implement and you get a sense of achievement after you complete it! 🌟

4- Reward 🏆

Ah yes. The finish line. The sense of achievement itself. This is what our cue has been signalling us for.

The reward is the satisfaction we get after completing every action. If the reward is satisfying enough, we go back into the ‘Cue’ stage. This creates a whole Habit Loop, which starts from the cue and ends with the reward. 

Conclusion

If you’ve read this far, just know I’m super proud of you! 👏

I know you’re reading this because you want to grow and become a better version of yourself. Always remember your habits are one of the most important and fundamental aspects to your growth, happiness, and success. It’s basically a life-hack that is super easy in theory, but super difficult in practice!

Keep a log to track your habits and always be easy on yourself. You have a whole life to live amigo! 🥳 

Let me know what new habits are you trying to build? 👇