It’s infuriating, isn’t it?
You find a fantastic new life hack and implement it immediately. Because embracing this practice will make you 20 times more effective at everything you do.
It works on the first day and you’re elated.
The second day, likewise, goes like clockwork.
Day three — even better.
And then, work pressure kicks in. You take your eye off your shiny new resolution and that’s it: immediately you’re bumbling along again in your old rut.
You berate yourself for your pathetic lack of follow-though.
Why is it so hard to stick with something that has the potential to be life-changing?
What if it’s not your fault?
Charles Duhigg explains it in his book about The Power of Habit. Most of our daily actions — far more than we acknowledge ore even realise — are driven by habit. When we incorporate a new practice into already busy lives, everything else has to shift up and make space.
That works as long as we consciously focus on keeping the space open. But when pressure mounts, our habits kick in and we default to ‘same old’ rather than ‘shiny, new’.
How can you shift that?
Recently I adopted two new practices with seeming ease. I look back on 17 consecutive days of implementing these new habits with utter disbelief. This is not the norm for me, so I analysed why it has been plain sailing.
It comes down to two things:
1. having a trigger event
2. using ‘dead’ time
What’s a trigger event?
Habit research has found that if you link a new practice to something you already do habitually, it’s an inbuilt reminder. If you want to do something daily, you need to piggy-back it on something already do each day.
In my case, I linked the new practice to my shower time. I shower each morning, and this habit is a perfect fit, 7 days a week.
Using ‘dead time’
Have you ever found money in your coat pocket when you had forgotten about it? Of course you have! Isn’t that just a great feeling? Well, finding and using ‘dead time’ is much the same. In effect, it’s the art of using a single minute more than once.
The perfect illustration is when you see people using their smart phones in line at the grocery checkout. Sure, they’re probably on Facebook, but they could be listening to podcasts, or learning a new language.
But it’s harder than finding the Holy Grail!
Finding the perfect match involving your new practice, a trigger habit and using dead time difficult. It takes effort.
Most people can’t be bothered. They just throw the new behaviour into the daily mix, and hope that this time things will work out differently.
But that’s not you. You’re prepared to invest time at the outset to reap the big reward later.
So off you go — it’s time to pull the trigger on something life changing!
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PS: Creative practices are notoriously hard to stick to. They seem so… frivolous. Non-essential. And yet research shows that embracing playful creativity is essential for good mental health.
What will you do today, to embrace your creativity?