Our lives are made up of habitual behavior. Behavior we tend not to pay attention to unless we have a sense that something is going wrong. When we do decide something is wrong and we try to change our behavior, we tend to run into obstacles. It can feel hard to create a new good habit. But it doesn’t have to be. There are four parts of a habit that we should address when we are trying to create a new habit. These are the cue, the craving, the response, and the reward. Manipulating the four parts that help to create a new habit will help you to be successful.
Let’s start with the first part of a habit, the cue. When we want to create a new habit, we need a cue to remember we want to do it. We need to make it obvious what we are supposed to do. The easiest way to do this is to change your environment so that the cue is something you look at every day. For example, if you wanted to start a habit of taking a walk everyday, you could leave your walking shoes out where you can see them. That is your cue, your reminder, of what your habit is. You can also use an already established habit to be your cue to walk. For instance, if you are used to waking up and having a cup of coffee in the morning, you can bundle your new habit of walking with drinking your morning cup of coffee. Just lace up your shoes immediately after you have had your coffee. After doing this for a while, it’ll become second nature to lace up your shoes and go on a walk coffee.
The second part of creating a new habit is to make yourself crave the new habit. You want to want to do the new habit. So you need to make the new habit attractive. In order to do this, you can pair your habit with something you already like to do. So, if you want to create a habit of walking every morning, you could listen to some special music that you like and that you only listen to while you are taking your walk. Soon, you will pair the feeling the music evokes in you with the feeling you get from your daily walk. You’ll start craving the feeling you get when you go on your walk.
The third part of creating a habit is the response to the cue and the craving. This is the meat of your habit; the part where you take action. When you are fist starting a new habit, make it as easy as possible to follow through. You want to create a habit that you can stick to even when conditions aren’t optimal. So, instead of your end goal of walking 2 miles every day, you want to make it a habit to walk 5 minutes every day. It is very easy to walk for 5 minutes every day. Even when you don’t feel very good, a five minute walk is achievable. Start there and you can build upon that. If you get in the habit of going for a walk every morning after your coffee, you’ve done the hardest part already. You’ve shown up to do the work. Adding time to your habit once it is formed is much easier to do, once you have the habit of lacing up your shoes after coffee.
The fourth part of creating a new habit is to make it rewarding. You want to get immediate gratification for participating in your habit. Your new habit of walking might not give you immediate gratification in and of itself. You can create a reward system that does provide immediate gratification and pair it with your new habit. Your reward could be putting a dollar in your vacation fund every time you go out for your walk. I have found that the simple act of visually tracking my progress on the calendar is rewarding in itself. All the marks on my calendar showing what I accomplished each day keeps a forward momentum going. Make sure the reward feels good immediately and is visible. It helps to be able to track your progress as a way to continue your streak.
For more information about how habits can change your life read “Atomic Habits” by James Clear