A few years ago, Sue came to her training session with a new goal. She wanted to become stronger. I congratulated her on setting thisSu new goal and asked her, “Why do you want to become stronger?”. After some thought, she said, “I want to be more active with my grandchildren.” She had just hit on the first step of goal setting, defining the “Why” behind a goal. The next step? Creating a strong plan of action that included daily steps towards her goal. With a little effort, those daily steps became lifelong habits which helped Sue continue to build new goals.
Start with an Action Plan
A well designed action plan lays forth the steps you need to take to reach your goal. It is a written document that you can access each day and may be in the form of a checklist or outline. In a study conducted by Prof. Gail Matthews, a psychologist at the Dominican University of California, participants who set actionable tasks for their goals and initiated weekly progress reporting to their peers, tended to achieve 40% more than participants that did not. Working together, Sue and I set forth actions to reach her goal. By doing this, her goal became more specific and we could measure progress through a daily checklist. Our next step was to find the right time in her day to add new actions.
Matching Actions with Current Habits
Sue recited her daily routine and we mapped out habits that matched with the actions needed to achieve her goal. By using the habit stacking formula as laid out by James Clear in his book, Atomic Habits, we were able to take advantage of her current habits to create new ones that would stick. The formula works like this: Before/After [Current Habit] I will [New Habit]. In Sue’s case, we used this formula to add strength training two days a week after a current habit of walking. For instance: On Mondays and Wednesdays, after her walk but before her coffee, she would spend twenty minutes following a strength training plan.
Creating the New Habit
In 2009, British researchers asked 96 volunteers to choose a new eating, drinking or activity behavior that would be performed at the same time everyday for twelve weeks. The goal of the study was to discover how long it takes for a new action to become a habit. The results showed it took the participants an average of 66 days to adopt the new action as a habit. Already in the habit of walking and then having her coffee, lacing up her shoes and heading out the door now became Sue's warm-up to strength training. Her walk reminded her to strength train and soon, it would become a normal part of her day, developing into a habit.
Goals Become Lifelong Habits
According to researchers at Duke University, 40% of our daily behaviors are driven by habit. With nearly half our day performed on autopilot, what would happen if we stopped focusing on the goal and instead focused on creating new (perhaps better) habits? Sue’s goal was to become stronger. She forged that path by following her action plan, allowing those steps to become a part of her normal day. Today, Sue continues to lift weights, she feels stronger and has more energy to play with her grandchildren. The goal has changed to a habit. Instead of wanting to become stronger, she now identifies with being stronger and continues the daily habit necessary to stay strong.