On the one hand, forming habits seems simple–setting aside fifteen or twenty minutes a day, or adding (or cutting out) a single food in your diet, isn’t complicated on its face. In practice, though, many people find it daunting. Anyone who has tried to keep a New Year’s resolution can attest to how difficult it is to create (or break) habits.
If you’ve ever failed to incorporate a new habit, despite real effort, it probably wasn’t your fault. Habits can be surprisingly difficult to form, and underestimating that difficulty can actually set people up for failure. One popular theory holds that a new habit can be formed in just 21 days. Unfortunately, this theory is based on a misunderstanding of a 1960 self-help book authored by a plastic surgeon; he was basing the 3-week timeline on how long it took patients to acclimate to their new appearance post-surgery.[1] From there, it spun out into ever wider applications, but without any additional scientific rigor underpinning it.
A 2009 study found that for most people, habit forming falls within a wide range, with the average length of time landing around 66 days of consistently committing to the desired behavior.[2] However, the type of behavior matters; learning a completely new skill understandably took much longer than relatively simple tasks, such as drinking more water each day, or adding in a serving of fruit or vegetables.
Your Catch Action Plan likely contains a range of suggested behavior modifications, some of which might be simpler to turn into habits (such as drinking more water), and some more difficult (such as starting, and maintaining, a workout routine). When taking control of your health, it’s important not to let eagerness outweigh usefulness; slow, steady success is better than a burst of energy that’s impossible to maintain long enough for the behaviors to solidify as habits. With that in mind, the following techniques may help you stick to your goals:
- Give yourself rewards now
Rewards are a powerful motivator, and the science shows tying them directly to your habit can help you maintain it. A 2014 study[3] tied access to new and engaging audio books to gym attendance (i.e., test subjects could only access the desirable content at the gym). This real-time reward translated to 51% higher gym attendance over the study period among those with gym-restricted content compared to the control group. Finding ways to do the same with any new habits you’d like to form–playing a favorite game on your phone while you eat that extra serving of vegetables, or watching guilty-pleasure shows while you exercise–will add an element of fun to the new behavior, and help you to continue it when initial enthusiasm for self-improvement may otherwise be waning. - Make a commitment
Committing to a goal mentally is fantastic, but putting your money where your mouth is can help you feel invested in your goal... literally. Paying for a gym membership or filling your fridge with fresh produce will give your goal tangible stakes (and costs) that can help keep you on track when your willpower wanes. - Set clear and specific intentions
Multiple studies have shown that setting a clear intention for a new habit you intend to form–such as writing down not only the specific goal you’d like to achieve, but when and where you’ll achieve it–have a hugely positive impact on habit formation.[4] For example, if your goal was to add more physical activity, specifying that you’ll walk for 15 minutes, that you’ll do it just before breakfast, and that you plan to walk from the house to the park and back is much likelier to lead to you actually completing the behavior than vaguer plans. - State your goals aloud, to yourself, and to others
It may feel silly, but studies have shown that stating your goals aloud can help you stick to them.[5] If that doesn’t feel like strong enough motivation, consider sharing your goals with others, particularly individuals you respect or look up to; a 2019 series of studies[6] published in the Journal of Applied Psychology showed that sharing goals, particularly with respected individuals, led to better long-term results. - Don’t go totally cold turkey
Especially when looking to break a habit–mindlessly snacking before bed, or smoking a cigarette after lunch–the impulse is often to attempt to drop the bad behavior altogether. However, swapping your habit for a different, but still recognizable behavior, may make it easier to avoid temptation. Instead of cutting out sweets, replacing processed options with fruit can serve as an in-between step (or simply a new healthy habit). If you’re used to stepping outside for a cigarette at a certain time of day, consider taking the same amount of time to listen to a favorite podcast or audiobook. If you usually have a drink before dinner, try using the same glassware, but sipping a mocktail from it instead. - Learn your cues / create new ones
Tying a behavior to a specific time and place can help form habits per the previously mentioned techniques. Part of this is based on cues–I always eat an apple after lunch can eventually lead to lunch is over, I need an apple. You can use this knowledge to help both make and break habits; tying new behaviors to the same cue every time–your commute, a before-bed ritual, or a specific meal–will make it easier for the action to become automatic. Similarly, recognizing what cues are leading to undesirable behaviors–stress at work, or boredom, for example–can help you consciously replace the unwanted behavior with a more positive (or at least neutral) alternative. - Use the SMART framework to your advantage
You may have heard of the SMART framework of goal-setting in a business context, but it can also work for personal goals; when laying out your goal, breaking it down via this handy tool will help you understand whether you’re likely to achieve it, and simultaneously increase the likelihood that you will (since, as mentioned above, specifying and committing to goals has proven positive effects). The SMART acronym refers to:
- Specific – Make sure you’re clear about your goal (e.g., instead of saying you’ll “exercise more,” note that you’ll “exercise at time X on the following days of the week…”).
- Measureable – Make your goal something you can measure (e.g., I’ll work out X minutes each day).
- Achievable – Overly ambitious goals are unlikely to be met, and the failure can lead to abandoning the entire endeavor. Start with a smaller, achievable goal and work up from there.
- Realistic – Similar to achievability, realism when setting goals is important. Don’t plan to overhaul your entire routine or diet all at once, be realistic about what you can do now.
- Timeframe – Knowing the length of time it will take to achieve your goal makes it easier to stay motivated and feel a sense of progress (for a new habit, a two-month timeframe is a realistic assessment for how long it would take to become automatic).
The impulse to change everything at once is strong, but incremental improvements are more manageable… and likelier to stick. Use the above tips to tackle your Action Plan items one or two at a time, and soon you’ll find positive behaviors have become second-nature.
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