I was with a colleague last week and we were talking about how we’d managed to alter habits that were hindering our progress. He mentioned he does lots of things to trick his brain so it’s not on autopilot and has to become conscious in the decision-making process. We realised we both do the same things and I thought I’d share them with you.​
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The first thing is to have a picture in your mind of your future self, i.e. the person who has mastered the habit. Visualisation is a fabulous tool that we all have and when we have clarity of the picture, our mind will open up to see opportunities to achieve it.​
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Change your environment. We’d been talking about giving up smoking and my colleague said that he’d changed his route to work because he knew which junction of the motorway was an automatic pilot moment for him to light up a cigarette. Whether it’s in your professional or personal life, make things easier for yourself to make the change. If you want to read more, leave a book near your favourite chair. If you know you reach out for the biscuits at a certain time of day, plan to do something else at that time instead.​
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Be consistent. I find if I break any habit by not doing it for a few days, however long I’ve been doing it, I’ve lost it. So, if exercise is your new thing, still do ten minutes even if you can’t do the whole hour. Ten minutes is better than no minutes. The same with building relationships. You don’t need to catch up for lunch or dinner or have an hour meeting planned in the diary. Regular shorter catch ups can make all the difference.​
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Finally, to increase your chances of success, start in the morning. Your willpower is typically strongest in the morning, making it the ideal time to start working on new habits. ​
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Forming new habits takes time. By acting as your future self, changing your environment, being consistent in the way you show up, and starting in the morning, you can create a solid foundation for lasting change. ​
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It’s often the small, incremental steps that lead to significant transformations over time.