January 2016

Depending on where you get your numbers, somewhere between 81 percent and 92 percent of New Year Resolutions fail. Behavior change is hard. No doubt about it. Why is that? What are the biggest reasons new habits fail to stick? And what can we do to make positive changes easier?

PROBLEM 1: Trying to Change Everything at Once.
SOLUTION: Pick one thing and do it well.

The general consensus among behavior change researchers is that you should focus on changing a very small number of habits at the same time. How tiny? Suggested habits include flossing one tooth, doing one pushup per day, or saying “It’s going to be a great day” when you get out of bed in the morning. So, even if you keep your new habits that small, you should work on no more than three habits at a time.

PROBLEM 2: Starting With a Habit That is Too Big.
SOLUTION: Make it so easy you can’t say no.

The most difficult part of a new habit is starting the behavior. It takes a lot of motivation to head to the gym for a workout after an exhausting day at work, but once you actually begin the workout it doesn’t take much willpower to finish it. For this reason, one of the best things you can do for building a new  behavior is to start with a remarkably small habit. New habits should be non-threatening. Start with a behavior that is so small it seems easy and reasonable to do it each day. Want to do 50 pushups per day? Start with something easy like 5 or 10.

PROBLEM 3: Seeking a Result, Not a Ritual.
SOLUTION: Focus on the behavior, not the outcome.

Nearly every conversation about goals and resolutions is focused on some type of result. What do you want to achieve? How much weight do you want to lose? How much money do you want to save? Naturally, we are outcome focused because we want our new behaviors to deliver new results. Here’s the problem: New goals don’t deliver new results. New lifestyles do. And a lifestyle is not an outcome, it is a process. For this reason, all of your energy should go into building better rituals, not chasing better results. If you want a new habit, you have to fall in love with a new ritual.

PROBLEM 4: Not Changing Your Environment.
SOLUTION: Build an environment that promotes good habits.

I have never seen a person consistently stick to positive habits in a negative environment. You can frame this statement in many different ways: It is nearly impossible to eat healthy all of the time if you are constantly surrounded by unhealthy food. We rarely admit it (or even realize it), but our behaviors are often a simple response to the environment we find ourselves in.

In fact, you can assume that the lifestyle you have today (all of your habits) is largely a product of the environment you live in each day. The single biggest change that will make a new habit easier is performing it in an environment that is designed to make that habit succeed. If your environment doesn’t change, you probably won’t either.

PROBLEM 5: Assuming Small Changes Don’t Add Up.
SOLUTION: Get one percent better each day.

If you listen to nearly anyone talk about their goals, you’ll hear them describe the minimum that they want to achieve. “I want to lose at least 20 pounds before summer.”

The underlying assumption is that your achievements need to be big to make a difference. Because of this, we always talk ourselves into chasing a big habit. “If I want to lose at least 20 pounds, I need to start busting my butt and working out for 90 minutes a day!”

If you look at your current habits, however, you’ll see a different picture. Nearly every habit you have today, good or bad, is the result of many small choices made over time. It is the repeated pattern of small behaviors that leads to significant results. Each day we make the choice to become one percent better or one percent worse, but so often the choices are small enough that we miss them.

If you’re serious about building a new habit, then start with something small. Start with something you can stick with for good. Then, once you’ve repeated it enough times, you can worry about increasing the intensity.

Build the behavior first. Worry about the results later.

By James Clear Source: http://jamesclear.com/habits-fail