4 Simple Steps to Kick-Start a Successful Habit

Let’s Begin

You have decided that you want to change your life. You’ve got a goal in mind. What can you do to ensure that you achieve success? You know that you will need to adopt certain success habits. The following steps will help you ensure successful habit formation.

Before we launch into the four steps, let’s look at the three elements that form our habits. Charles Duhigg clearly identifies these three elements in his seminal book “The Power of Habit”. There is a Cue or a trigger that alerts us to take an Action, which continued action creates a routine, and the result of completing the routine delivers us some type of Reward. This is also known as a reinforcing cycle or loop. Once you recognize the cycle you can change it, if so desired. The typical human response is to change the cue, by removing it from your environment or avoiding it all together. The problem with this approach is that you have not addressed the root cause of the problem which can lie in the routine or the reward.

Duhigg stresses that recognizing that the cue can emerge regardless of avoidance or removal, so replacing the current routine with an alternative routine is paramount to long-term success. I critical factor is that the routine should be positive and create an alternate reward that is desired and tangible.