How To Build Good Habits in Best Ways

The intention of this guide is to give you simple and concrete keys to apply in your daily life to establish the habits that will lead you to success. By consciously marking out our daily life with constructive habits, we nourish what is essential for us. The path to success is then mapped out.

What is a habit?

Habit is a gesture, a thought, a routine or any other action that we repeat in a more or less mechanical way, always the same.

Habit can be beneficial when it comes to nourishing something essential to us. The “Miracle Morning” movement invites us to establish new habits before starting our usual day. Getting up early to do a meditation time, for example, or a yoga routine can be very beneficial habits because they set the tone for a day in consciousness.

It can also be toxic when it settles without consciousness and sabotages efforts we are making elsewhere. For example, if I am used to eating candy every day, it could sabotage my efforts to eat better.

What is the relationship between habit and success?

The more we are able to raise awareness of our beneficial habits, the more nourishing they will be.

We will also become more and more able to define what we need and when we need it. The habit then becomes a real frame of reference that supports us in our quest for success. It becomes possible to rely on our habits to progress towards success.

The best techniques to install great habits

Above all, we must be aware that the human being is a creature of habit. Thus, it is estimated that, on average, habits account for 40% of an individual’s actions. We act a lot by habit. Because habits are automated actions that require less effort. And they are easier to perform than controlled initiatives. Therefore, installing good habits is an effective way to perform good actions with greater ease.

And, one must keep in mind that big results usually come (for the most part) from small steps taken on a regular basis. This is called the cumulative effect. For example, drinking water instead of soft drinks every day won’t make much difference over a week, and not too much over a month.

But it will already make a significant difference over one year, and a huge difference over 10 years. Likewise, reading one hour a day instead of watching TV won’t make a big difference in the short term, but in the long term, after 10 years, the difference will be significant in terms of education.

In addition, exercising one’s willpower by installing good and sometimes uncomfortable habits allows one to strengthen one’s willpower and discipline. Developing willpower and discipline allows you to achieve greater things in your life.

1. Giving meaning to good habits

In order to last over time, it is important to have strong motivations behind your good habits. In other words, we must support our good habits with reasons that affect us, with powerful “whys”.

To do this, one can start by defining one’s aspirations, one’s ideal of life, one’s projects, one’s priorities, and so on. Then, one must link one’s aspirations to good habits. Starting from your aspirations to determine good habits is an effective way to naturally have strong reasons behind your good habits.

Having said that, even if it is interesting to have motivations based on the long term, it is necessary to privilege concrete, emotional, and short term motivations (but always linked to one’s aspirations).

For example, if you want to do sports regularly, it is better to opt for motivations. Like the state of relaxation caused by the production of endorphins, the feeling of satisfaction and pride just after practice, etc.

2. Linking good habits to identity

Identity can reinforce the motivations to establish good habits.

Motivations are based on doing and having: “I do this to do this, to get this result… Identity is based on being: “I do this because I am…”.

For example, to play sports regularly, one can certainly have motivations such as improving one’s appearance, improving one’s health, improving one’s performance in competition, etc.

But one can also simply say to oneself “I am a sports person, I am not someone who gives up exercising, etc.”.

Having said that, it is better to avoid falling into extreme rigidity that would create frustration, guilt, etc. You have to be able to accept a few deviations without making your identity suffer too much.

3. Favor early morning hours to establish good habits.

Good habits can be established at different times of the day, but the early morning hours are particularly conducive for several reasons. First of all, it is generally at the beginning of the day that we have the most energy and are therefore more inclined to follow good habits. In other words, as the day progresses, it becomes more and more difficult to find the will to act.

Then, it is also at the beginning of the day, especially if you get up early, that the distractions are the least numerous. When others are still sleeping or getting up, they do not interact with us and therefore do not disturb our good habits.

Thus, getting up early and following through with a list of good habits (morning routines) is an effective way to achieve good habits with limited risk of being distracted.

Finally, starting your day with good habits creates a positive dynamic for the rest of the day. This puts you in a positive and constructive state of mind, and it is then more natural to keep this state of mind for the rest of the day. Installing good habits in the morning hours therefore generally helps to improve your day.

4. Finding a balance between rigid structure and flexibility to more easily maintain good habits and be happier

Despite the importance of structuring habits, it is also important to keep a certain freedom and variety in one’s life to last and flourish. Good habits allow you to develop, but they can be a little rigid and repetitive.

Although automation eventually makes it easier to get started, habits can sometimes become overwhelming. And when they are overwhelming, they are not viable.

Therefore, it is advisable to leave some freedom outside your habits, but also within your habits. Thus, habits should not occupy all our life, we must also leave room for periods of freedom, for punctual actions, for sometimes improvised actions, for letting go, for relaxation.

At the beginning, in order to anchor and automate a good habit, a certain stability of habit and context is preferable because it gives clear references to the brain (which favors automation).

But then, lack of variety over time can lead to boredom, and boredom often leads to abandonment.

To avoid falling into boredom and giving up, it is therefore advisable to insert a dose of freedom and variety into one’s habits.

For example:

• Eat vegetables every day, but vary the vegetables.
• Run regularly, but sometimes improvise the course,
• Write an article or make a video every day, but vary the subjects.

The important thing to remember is that a balance must be found between a rigid structure and a space of freedom and variety.

5. Incorporate a dose of fun to help you maintain good habits and be happier.

A dose of variety and freedom is important to last, but it’s even better and more effective if it’s accompanied by a dose of fun.

It’s not necessarily a matter of making all good habits enjoyable, but at least try to make them less unpleasant when they are. Fun can be incorporated by incorporating challenge, play, humor, camaraderie, etc.

For example, if you want to play sports regularly, you can simply play a sport that you enjoy. To run regularly, you can listen to music and sometimes start to dance while running. To work on a foreign language, you can read a book on a subject you are passionate about.

Usually, by taking the time to think about it a bit, you can add a bit of fun to any habit, without really losing efficiency (better to lose a bit of efficiency in the short term but hold on over time, than the opposite…).

6. Favour simplicity to more easily maintain good habits.

In order to hold on more easily over time, it is important to keep a certain simplicity and flexibility in one’s habits.

If a habit requires a lot of preparation, materials, transportation, etc., it will require more effort and be more difficult to maintain over time.

In addition, in the event of unforeseen events, it will be more difficult to adapt and carry out this habit.

In a preoccupation with regularity, it is thus necessary to avoid elaborating habits that are too sophisticated, with conditions that are too complex, too heavy, too fragile in the face of the unexpected.

• To eat healthily, it is therefore better to eat dishes that are simple to prepare than very complicated ones (especially if you don’t like to cook).
• Do sports regularly, it is best to avoid having to drive 45 minutes.
• To make a video regularly, it is better to avoid having hours of preparation and editing to do.

Simplicity is not to be neglected, because often it is complexity rather than a lack of will that is the problem in adopting and maintaining a good habit.

7. Eventually start with mini habits that are easier than the targeted good habits.

Establishing good habits takes effort, and the more difficult the habits are, the greater the effort. To make a habit easier, one can use simplification (previous part), but also habit reduction. In other words, we can start with a mini habit, easier than the intended habit. By decreasing resistance, a mini habit makes it easier to take action.

And of course, it is better to have mini habits that are regularly performed than large habits that are poorly performed. Then, we can gradually move from mini habits to targeted habits.

As an example, if you want to run 8 km every 2 days, you can very well start with 1 km. Then go to 1.5 km, then to 2 km, then to 4 km and so on … until you reach your 8km goal.

8. Use easy triggers and first actions to facilitate the implementation of good habits.

The hardest part of making a good habit is starting it.

Thus, to simplify the start-up, it is advisable to use triggers, as well as simple and easy first actions. A trigger is a signal that triggers the realization of a good habit, by conditioning. A trigger can be an action preceding the good habit (clearing the table triggering tooth brushing), a stimulus in the environment (a musical alarm to go brushing your teeth), or any other well-defined signal.

Establishing a trigger for each good habit is therefore a good way to condition your brain. And make it easier to put the habit into action.

Then, again to encourage action, it is advisable to develop a simple and easy first action for each good habit. To do this, you must break down your good habits into small actions and go back to the first small action.

• Go running: one can consider that to put on his sports shoes is the first action to be carried out in his habit.
• Eat green beans: we can consider that opening the tin can is the first action to be carried out in our habit.

Defining a first action that is easy to perform allows you to focus on it when the trigger occurs, and helps you get the habit started and carried out.

9. Use rewards to reinforce good habits.

It is also advisable to associate an immediate reward with each habit. A reward allows to finish the loop of a good habit (trigger, habit, reward) by associating a final pleasure to it. However, generally, this loop will gradually compress, and the pleasure will thus end up appearing as soon as the trigger of the habit appears. Therefore, a reward makes it possible to associate pleasure with the achievement of a good habit. Thus makes it easier to anchor and maintain a good habit.

The most effective rewards are the so-called “primitive” rewards. For example, you can plan a good meal after each sports session, plan the viewing of an episode of a series after a long work session, etc.

In addition to these “primitive” rewards, one can also use the rewards related to the feeling of accomplishment, pride, etc., to complement the “primitive” rewards. For example, you can tick a cross on a newspaper or on an application, and thus give yourself points for having achieved a good habit.

10. Write down your good habits to respect them more easily

In order to encourage the realization of good habits, it is advisable to write them down, specifying the moment when the habit should be realized. Writing down your good habits helps you to have them in mind and thus increase the chances of achieving them.

In fact, a study has shown that people are three times more likely to achieve their good habits if they write them down. To optimize the impact of this technique, it is also advisable to post your written habits in a place that you see regularly (wall of a room, telephone, etc.).

11. Use pride and follow-up to help you stick to good habits.

Pride can sometimes be a problem when facing fears, asking for help, etc. But, in order to install and carry out good habits, using one’s pride is rather effective. Pride can push us to respect our personal commitments, to realize our good habits. Thus, to appeal to his pride, it is advisable to develop a precise follow-up of the realization of these habits.

This monitoring can be done via a calendar with crosses or via an application with dots. Obviously, it is important to be serious and honest in its follow-up, in order to put a real personal pressure on yourself and to really titillate your pride.

12. Use positive social pressure to make it easier to stick to good habits.

Positive social pressure is also a very good tool to respect good habits.

• One way to use positive social pressure is to make a public commitment to carry out good habits. To avoid being ridiculed in the eyes of others, one will then be pushed to act to respect one’s commitment.
• Likewise, one may decide to challenge a friend to carry out a good habit.
  This challenge is also an incentive to take action and maintain the good habit.
• One can also decide to carry out some good habits in a group, in order to have some accountability in case of cancellation and thus avoid this situation.

To go to the gym regularly or to run regularly, you can commit to regular sessions with a friend.

• Finally, one can also imagine oneself observed by a biographer taking notes on everything one does. This imaginary situation can generate some social pressure and encourage people to carry out their good habits.

13. Force yourself to perform the first small action of good habits.

One must be aware that performing the first action of a good habit creates a positive dynamic. Indeed, an action generates better mental and emotional energy, which makes it easier to follow up with other actions. It is therefore important to force oneself to perform the first small action of a good habit, in order to get into action and follow through. In addition to making the first action of a good habit fairly easy, there are techniques to make it easier to perform that first action.

The 3-second rule is to count down from 3 to 1 and then go straight to action

This technique helps to block possible negative thoughts and excuses. It also makes it possible to short-circuit possible bad feelings and to take action despite everything. This technique is so simple that it sounds silly, but it is really very effective.

14. To carry out the good habits one after the other by being very concentrated.

In order to realize your good habits and to carry them out well, it is important to focus all your attention on them when they need to be carried out. During periods devoted to good habits, it is therefore advisable to cut off any distractions in one’s environment.

It is also important to stay focused on making a good habit in the present moment until it is completed. Therefore, when following a sequence of good habits (morning routines, for example), it is important to perform the good habits one after the other, without trying to alternate between several habits at the same time. In the age of new technologies and continuous information, concentration is an underestimated asset.

But it is a key to realizing one’s habits, and realizing them well.

15. Keep in mind that a new good habit will be easier to achieve after a certain amount of time.

Achieving a good habit can be very strenuous and difficult at first.

This difficulty is normal because the habit is not yet established and integrated at an unconscious level. Therefore requires a conscious decision and effort.

But studies show that habits take between 2 weeks and 9 months (depending on their difficulty) and 66 days on average to become firmly integrated, automatic, and require less conscious effort.

From then on, it becomes easier to maintain a good habit because one feels the need to carry it out and its realization requires less effort.

So yes, 2 weeks and 9 months is not at all the same… but what you have to keep in mind is that if you persevere, it will probably get easier within 3 months, and at worst after 9 months.

Holding on to it at the beginning is therefore the most difficult, but it pays off in the installation of a good habit.

16. Never miss a good habit more than once in a row.

Whether during the first 2 months or even after, it is important not to miss a good habit more than once in a row.

Every time you don’t realize a good habit, you increase the risk of destroying it considerably.

In other words, a habit takes between 2 weeks and 9 months to become deeply integrated and automatic, but this construction can be destroyed in a few days if it is a daily habit.

• Specifically, studies have shown that there is a 5% chance of quitting a good habit after missing it once, a 55% chance of quitting it after missing it twice in a row, and a 90% chance of quitting it after missing it three times in a row.
• Thus, missing a good habit once has generally limited consequences, but missing it twice in a row can greatly weaken the maintenance of this good habit.

In other words, you really have to avoid missing a good habit twice in a row.

17. Punish yourself after you have missed a good habit.

Conditioning is effective in establishing behavior in humans.

Therefore, just as it is effective to reward yourself every time you achieve a good habit. It is also effective to punish yourself every time you do not achieve a good habit (or achieve a bad habit).

The absence of the usual reward may already be a punishment in itself, but it is even more effective to add a real sanction.

Sanctions include financial sanctions, with the obligation to give money to someone whenever one does not carry out a good habit.

18. Install good habits one after the other

Many people want to install lots of good habits (called resolutions) in the new year. Unfortunately, this good intention is usually followed by failures, and this is quite normal.

So it is indeed very difficult to install several good habits at the same time, because it usually requires a mass of effort that is not tenable.

It is therefore better to install the good habits one after the other, or at least limit the number of new good habits.

Therefore it is advisable to start a new good habit at least 30 days after the previous one.

By leaving 30 days between 2 new good habits we limit the risk of abandoning everything. Since the first good habit is usually partially integrated and automated at that time.

19. Test new habits in the form of a challenge for 30 days and evaluate.

It is sometimes difficult to know in advance whether a habit is really tenable and really beneficial.

So it is advisable to test the habit and partially install it via a challenge for 30 days.

The challenge is simply to carry out this habit for 30 days without missing it.

• After 30 days, the new habit must be evaluated, particularly in terms of contribution, costs, difficulties, risks, etc.
• Then, following this evaluation, a decision can then be made on what to do next with the new habit.

This may include stopping, reducing, modifying, maintaining, or reinforcing the new habit.

It is advisable to regularly evaluate and adjust your good habits.

• Evaluating a good habit consists of assessing its contribution, its costs, the difficulties involved, the risks, etc.
• And following these evaluations, it is advisable to regularly adjust one’s good habits.

Some good habits can be stopped, some can be reduced, some can be modified, some can be maintained, some can be strengthened, and some can be added.

Habits need to be dynamic and evolving as our needs, desires, and the world around us change.

Now it is time to take action!!!!!!!

By testing these techniques with a habit you want to develop.