We’ve all heard these famous sayings, “We are what we repeatedly do” and “excellence is not an act but a habit.” But how do you actually form new ones that stick? In episode 10, we’re diving into how to hack your habits (and actually stick to them).

It only takes 21 days to form a habit, and with all this time spent at home right now, a lot of us have more time and space to work on developing new behaviours we’ve always wanted to tackle. But it can feel really daunting and hard to find the motivation, because we’re all out of our routines, and habits require routine.

But habits don’t need to be these huge, crazy life changes! They actually work best when they’re small, subtle tweaks, and the key to making them stick is routine. It’s turning your habits into automatic processes where you can act without thinking, like brushing your teeth before bed.

The science behind our habits

It helps to understand why habits are at the core of everything we do, and how you can shape and change them to have a positive impact on your life. One of the best books on this topic is The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life & Business by Pulitzer-prize winning best-selling author Charles Duhigg. Duhigg explains that habits work in 3-step loops: Cue, Routine & Reward.

The Cue is what triggers you to do a habit, so, setting your alarm to wake you up everyday at 8:00AM. Having a trigger helps create a ritual that you can use to follow through with your habit.

The Routine is the behavior that you then automatically do after the Cue. For example when you first get out of bed you might brush your teeth, wash your face and go make a coffee in the same order every day.

And then the Reward is the part of the loop where you receive something for completing your habit. So that could be the comforting feeling of that first sip of coffee in the morning. Or maybe it’s taking a long hot shower after a tough workout.

So the key to start forming new habits or to changing any bad habits, is to understand your cue, change your routine and, reward yourself in a positive way that will encourage you to want to do that habit again and again.

Shaping your identity with habits

Simple habits have the power to change your self-image, confidence and mindset. That’s why they really matter—they change your internal narrative about yourself. How many times have you told yourself that, “you’re not a morning person, you’re bad at remembering things, you’re just not organized, or you’re always late?” The thing about habits is that when you show up and follow through with them, they help support the ideals of being a certain type of person.

Habits are the evidence that allows you to identify as something: Your immediate goal may be to run a marathon, but it’s ultimately to identify as a “runner”. You might want to start reading a few books on your list, but what you actually want, is to be “a reader”.

You can also think of habits like you think of compound interest, in the sense that the effects of your habits multiply as you repeat them. You might not see a lot of difference day to day, but they can really change your life in a few months or years. They’re like the compound interest of self-improvement!

7 Ways To Hack Your Habits

Whether you’re looking to nail a new morning routine, start meditating, read more, or start working out (check out episode #9 of the podcast, with fitness coach Beverley Cheng, for more workout inspo), we’ve rounded up seven proven strategies for making new habits stick.

1. Commit to 21 days

It only takes 21 days for a habit to stick, and once you’ve established that habit, if you keep up with it for 90 days, it’s guaranteed to become a permanent lifestyle change.

2. Be realistic

It’s way easier to stick to new habits if you start simple. Don’t try to completely change your life in one day, so start small and build from there. If you’re feeling super overwhelmed by a big goal, habit expert James Clear (the author of Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones) recommends The Two Minute Rule: Take whatever habit you’re trying to build and scale it down to something that takes just two minutes everyday. So, reading more books becomes reading just one page a day. Working out daily becomes a quick two minute sweat sesh. Then you can build on that scale up once it’s become a habit.

3. Be consistent

Consistency is super important for making a habit stick. Try doing it at the same time, and in the same place when possible for those three weeks. Cues like time of day, place and environment will help make these changes permanent.

A great way to stay consistent is to try Filmmaker and Youtuber Matt D'Avella’s The Two Day Rule: Don’t go 2 days in a row without doing your new habit. That way, if you skip one day you don’t need to beat yourself up over it or give up. Give yourself a one day grace period and you’ll be more likely to stick to your new habit.

4. Try habit stacking

If you’re trying to do a bunch of small tasks regularly, a proven way to get shit done consistently is to group those activities together into a routine, and to link that to a habit you’ve already already set in your day. This anchors your new habits to an existing trigger, and it really does work.

5. Create visual cues

Tangible cues can act as regular reminders to practice your habit. For example, put your running shoes somewhere visible if you want to workout more or put athletic clothes on when you wake up, or leave your book on your night stand if you’re trying to read more.

6. Schedule in your habits

Scheduling whatever it is you’re trying to accomplish will help you treat it as a non-negotiable that you have to work around. Using an app to track your progress or to help set daily reminders is a great app—we recommend the Tally app, which lets you set daily or weekly goals for each habit. You could also use a connected device like Amazon Alexa to set reminders during the day.

7. Track your progress

You can also track your process the good ol’ fashion way with pen and paper, with something that habit hackers call the Seinfeld method, which was coined by—you guessed it!—Jerry Seinfled. When he was training to become a comedian, he knew that the only way to get better was to consistently write and test out new jokes, so he got a giant calendar and a big red magic marker and would mark an “X” every day that he wrote. Eventually you’ll get a big chain of X’s that will keep motivating you to add more.

We’ve created a free downloadable habit tracker to help you get started, so be sure to check it out here and start tracking your progress!

We hope these tips will help motivate you to start forming the new habits you’ve been dreaming of. Hit us up on social and let us know what’s been working for you!

If you have a topic you’d like us to cover or a guest you want us to interview, comment or DM us on Instagram:

@teachmehowtoadultpodcast

@cailynmichaan

@yunggillianaire