How Can You Form A New Habit More Easily

There is much talk about the power of habits – the right ones, of course! How can you form a new habit more easily? 

Transcript

How can you form a new habit more easily? I have the good fortune to be part of an exciting team right now, putting together a program on how you can beat insulin resistance and inflammation. We have a psychologist on our team. Her name is Dr. Joley Gardner. She told us a nugget that I would like to, in turn, share with you. 

How do you get from a decision to a habit? There’s a path.

The Path From Decision To Habit

The first step on that path is what it just said, a decision. You weigh the pros and cons of making a decision. Then you make a conscious choice.

Then from there, you take a step forward. You execute behavior that goes along with that decision. It takes effort. You are “trying it out.” (or testing it, as I prefer saying).

From there, the behavior becomes a routine. You do the behavior repeatedly, but you still have awareness about it. You think about it, but it is starting to become part of your lifestyle. 

Finally, the routine becomes a habit. We also call it autopilot. It is now an ingrained behavior that no longer requires thinking. There are many examples. 

• Driving is probably one of them. 
• You might have formed the habit of flossing your teeth. If you can’t do it, then you don’t feel good. 

Habits are part of your unconscious competence. Unconscious competence is, in many regards, your friend because you don’t have to think about this particular behavior anymore. That’s very important in terms of lifestyle habits and business growth habits. 

Let’s say if you have the habit of always making three new friends daily, that could be very helpful to your business. 

The Downside of Unconscious Competence

There’s a downside to unconscious competence as well. We have talked about this in several Brilliance Nuggets: You’re not even aware of how you create all these marvelous results that you are getting. That points us, once again, in the direction of the value of Brilliance Mining. 

Key Takeaways

But this nugget is about how can you form new habits more easily? First off, be aware of this path:

1. First, make a decision, which is much different from hope or a wish. 
2. Take action even a little step forward. That’s the behavior. 
3. Repeat the behavior, so it becomes a routine.
4. From there, it becomes a habit, unconscious competence. 

That is how you form a new habit more easily. As Dr. Gardner points out in our program, you always develop habits. You have a habit around how you cross your arms, where you leave your keys, and probably, when you wake up. Forming new habits is not that difficult. 

I’m Curious

• What’s a new habit you want to form? What’s a new practice you decide to begin?
• What is the first step? What’s that little behavior that you’re going to implement?