How to Harness the Power of Habits
“Time amplifies what you feed it”
How many of Shakespeare’s plays can you name? There are obvious ones that come to mind for me: Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Macbeth….
How about these ones?
Love’s Labour’s Lost, Titus Andronica, Henry VI Part One.
These are considered to be Shakespeare’s earliest works. In relation to his other plays, unless you’re a die-hard fan, you’ve probably never heard of them, let alone read them. You’re not alone. Scholars admit, albeit sheepishly, that they’re not that good.
Shakespeare, considered to be the greatest writer of all time, an unparalleled genius and a cultural icon got better with time and practice.
And so can you, in whatever endeavour you’re pursuing - both big and small.
What we do today rarely makes a difference tomorrow. But what we keep doing everyday has a massive impact weeks, months and years down the line.
Because small changes have barely noticeable immediate impact, both positive and negative habits appear trivial in the short-term. Scrolling through Instagram for an hour isn’t a big deal today, or tomorrow. Spending an hour reading a chapter from an inspiring book won’t change much either. But the consequences of these two daily habits will produce vastly different outcomes in your ability to focus and retain information in a years’ time.
Ultimately, what you regularly practice becomes the bedrock of your quality of life.
What small habits do you want to incorporate into your daily life?
Practicing gratitude, walking more, flossing your teeth, saving money, eating more vegetables, reading more, learning an instrument, writing a play. The choice is endless.
Sometimes that can make it difficult to select one thing.
However, if you have even the vaguest idea of how you would like your future to be like, you’ll intuitively know which habits are pulling you towards or away from that reality.
Here are 4 tools you can use to implement sustainable changes in your daily life.
1 - Measure
It’s hard to improve something that you’re not tracking. How do you know if you’re making progress? Being able to celebrate averaging 10,000 steps a day for a month can only happen if you know you’ve actually done it.
Some examples are:
Record how many minutes you’re reading per day
Track how many portions of veg you’re consuming
Note every day you do a gratitude practice
Track your time using social media
Monitor your sleep and wake times
Record your progress.
2 - Remember Your Why
There’s a reason you’ve decided to change your habits - and it’s unlikely to be because you love eating cauliflower or because the gym is your favourite place to be on earth. It’s because these habits support what’s meaningful in your life.
Getting fit is usually more about having better energy or mental clarity. But there’s also a reason you want improved energy or focus.
Is it so you can enjoy playing with your children more?
So you can make better decisions at work?
Or climb all 282 Munros?
Remember your why - it’ll give you the fuel you need to continue when maintaining the habit inevitably becomes challenging.
3 - Start small
It’s estimated that the UK population alone wastes around £600 million a year on unused gym memberships.
A huge proportion of this is down to setting unrealistic expectations. For example, hyped up by the start of the year you decide to go seven times a week. You might stay true to this for the first week but likely ‘only’ manage to go six times in week two. Then five times and then four. Going to the gym four times a week is still excellent, but it’s less than you intended. Now you feel like a failure. You’re just ‘not a gym person’ and so stop going altogether.
Doing the opposite has been shown to be far more effective.
Promise yourself you’ll go once a week. That’s achievable. There’s low pressure and low expectation. Perhaps you’ll even go twice that week as a bonus. Now you’re winning. Those small wins are gigantic catalysts for continued improvement. Maybe you are a gym person after all.
You could do the same with eating one less chocolate bar per week instead of cutting them out completely. Going for a 5 minute walk instead of 1 hour. Meditating for 3 minutes instead of 30.
Start small - it’s the easiest way to build sustainably.
4 - Embrace failure
Failure is an inevitable part of progress. If only we learnt that as children. Our school system tends to reinforce the idea that failure is bad.
“I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.”
Thomas Edison on inventing the lightbulb
If you’re trying anything new or challenging then you won’t get it right every time.
That means you’re doing it right.
Embrace set-backs as necessary and inevitable stages of learning.
What daily actions are you feeding your time with? What are the long-term consequences of these actions?
“The position you find yourself in today is the accumulation of the small choices you’ve been making for years.”
Make a list. Feed habits that help you grow. Starve the others.
Know that progress takes time. Even Shakespeare took many years of sustained practice and effort before he got good.
You can create great works in your own life too - be it having a more organised home, keeping a journal, running a 5k, becoming a more patient parent or starting your own business.
Small changes contribute to bigger ones, and bigger changes make the small ones worthwhile.
Small, consistent, intentional choices are your vehicle to life-changing outcomes.
