3 Keys for Long-term Behavior Change and Habit Development

Make Change Convenient
Where can the new change fit into your current day? Where can you find or make space for it? Example: You want to change your habit of binge watching TV every night. A convenient way to change this behavior might be by only watching that TV show while doing something you already do daily such as cardio. Another way to create convenience is to allow for flexibility. Rather than saying 'My new Habit will be Journaling every morning at 5am" you might start with 'I will journal every day at the time I set aside to do so the night before'. Flexibility allows for more convenience and it gives you the chance to find out where the new habit or change best fits into your life. If you want to eat more fruit, you might put it at the front of the fridge. If you want to be more cleanly, you might leave your broom out of the closet for awhile as a visual reminder to sweep, or you might give it a new and more visible / accessible home altogether.

Recognize & Reinforce the Benefit to Change
Recognizing how the change helps you is going to be key in reinforcing the change positively. If you do not see a benefit to the change that is greater than the benefit of staying the same or continuing with life as you know it, then you will not create a deeper reason for change. Some people will say they want to do something like read every day but their reason for this is because they want to be like the person who said they do this or because they want to impress someone. There has to be more benefit to it that only you can understand and embrace personally. For example, you might want to start meditating every day. It would be good to research the benefits of meditation and then create specific examples of how each ties in to your life. Maybe you hear it helps with focus so you might be able to say, 'improving my focus would help me to perform better at work which would bring me more opportunity for a raise or promotion which could help me to feel more at peace about my investment in this job every day'. 

It is also important to reinforce the benefit of changing. Reward yourself for completing the habit or changing the behavior. You might set out to start running 3x a week so a reward each day you run could be a luxurious epsom salt bath, this not only reinforces the behavior with relaxation but it promotes the continuation of the behavior by providing relief and recovery which will help you run again next week. A long-term positive reinforcement might be getting new running shoes for yourself after a milestone. Reinforcing a benefit to change can also be as simple as affirming the benefit when participating. Someone who is getting into lifting weights might say to themselves all the ways it benefits them and their health and life before, during, and after completing a session. By setting an alarm on their phone to do this, they certainly won't forget and the sound used for the alert will become expected and trigger new and positive thoughts about working out.

Confirm that the Change Aligns with your Values
I have never believed that 28 days is all it takes to form a habit. If you don't have the belief in the benefit, the convenience and flexible approach, or an alignment to your core values, it will be difficult for your brain to justify a permanent change to the status quo. Identifying your core values can give you a chance to see how the new behaviors bring you closer to these values or support you in satisfying them. Branching off my example in the last slide, you might say that meditating improving focus on work and increasing chances for a raise or promotion ALSO satisfies your value of contribution because by being able to focus more you create a better work product in a more efficient amount of time so the time you used to spend being distracted can now be spent on the people you love or other areas of life that need your attention. There are a myriad of 'core values' you could identify. I recommend starting by asking yourself what drives you to get up in the morning and keeps you going after everything you do. Core values might be family, freedom, love, impact, education, philanthropy, honesty, connection, community, faith..., once you really find what drives you, you can then see how your behaviors are or are not aligned to your values and then either improve on them or let that support you in pursuing the value. I always ask myself, 'What happens if I don't____?' and this gives me the kick in the butt to go and do it because if i don't, I might be sacrificing the satisfaction of what matters most to me!


Resources to support habit change and development can be found in my book 'Believe your way to Badass' which is available on Amazon!


You can also contact me to discuss 1:1 mentorship and coaching revolving around your goals and personal development :)

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