How to Build Better Habits

Much of human behavior follows a predictable cycle: trigger, behavior, reward.

For behaviors that you want to do, the goal is to make triggers salient, the behavior easy, and the reward as immediate and satisfying as possible. For behaviors that you want to avoid, it’s the opposite. 

In habit speak, don’t underestimate the power of everything around you to act as a trigger. 

A better option than relying purely on willpower is to consciously design your environment to remove the temptations that regularly get in the way of what you’re trying to do. 

it’s not just your physical environment that influences your behavior but also your social one. Motivation is contagious. 

A community also helps with accountability. If you’ve made a commitment to another person or group, you’re more likely to stick with it.

If you want to make any kind of significant change, you’d be wise to take baby steps.

If you regularly overshoot on the ability side of the equation, you’re liable to flame out. But if you gradually increase the challenge over time, what was hard last week will seem easier today. 

The harder the habit change, the more likely you are to fail or relapse into old ways of being. Your reaction when this happens is critical.