Turn your goals into habits with this simple framework
Last week I talked about goals, but once we have the goals we need to follow through.
Without follow-through, your goals mean nothing. But follow-through is the hard part.
Too often we rely on willpower and motivation, but this guarantees failure.
Instead, we should convert our goals to habits that are so easy to do we’d have to try not to do them.
In the book Tiny Habits, BJ Fogg talks about this exact thing.
Each habit can be broken down into 3 elements:
- Motivation: your desire to do the behavior
- Ability: your capacity to do the behavior
- Prompt: your cue to do the behavior
The goal should be to make the habit possible to do even when motivation is low.
So the prompt needs to be easy to do and require low motivation.
When you master this formula, you’ll start mastering your habits.
So, what is a prompt? A prompt is simply the thing that initiates you doing the behavior or habit you’re trying to build.
To be most successful, we want to use prompts that already exist and just add to our current routines. These are known as anchors.
These anchors get us moving, then allow us to continue on to the new habit we want to form.
You do this through using this sequence:
“After I [existing anchor] , I will [new tiny behavior]”
Say you want to start flossing. To create a habit of flossing, you should add it to the end of your bedtime routine. You can even leave the floss out or set it on/by your toothbrush as a reminder.
After I set down my toothbrush, I will pick up the floss.
Or you want to start on your to-do list immediately upon arriving at work. The night before, put a sticky on your monitor with the first item you want to complete and set a phone reminder to ping you when you enter the parking lot. So now when you get to work you’ve made that first task super easy.
After I sit in my chair, I will look at my to-do list.
You want to identify the last possible action before adding on the additional action. And notice, the additional action isn’t “complete 30 minutes of work”, it’s “look at my to-do list.”
When we do this, we create habit sequences. We can build on these sequences and create outsized results. This is when they start to become systems.
So, consider, what is one new habit you’re trying to build right now?