5 Steps to Turn Your Goals into Habits
Having trouble making new goals stick? You’re in good company!
Many New Year goals involve behavior change - which can be incredibly challenging. We might not know where to start, or maybe we’ll change the behavior for a week and then go back to our old habits.
Habit Stacking is a technique where you form new habits by pairing a new desired behavioral change with an already existing behavior you routinely do (making coffee or showering) — or something that routinely happens in your day (your alarm going off or the kids coming home from school).
Habit Stacking involves these five steps:
OBSERVE: What’s going on around you, and how do you spend your time? Take one day to add notes to your digital calendar or jot down in a journal about how you spend each hour.
MAKE A LIST: Within each hour, take note of your current routine habits that you do at about the same time each day, such as “make my bed,” “blow dry my hair,” “brew a pot of coffee,” or “take a lunch break.”
IDENTIFY YOUR GOAL: Whether your goal is to meditate, exercise, or read more - make it specific. I.e. “I will meditate for 5 minutes each morning,” or “I will walk for 15 minutes every day.”
STACK YOUR HABIT: Go back to the list you created during step two, then consider with which current habit your new goal might align best. I.e. “After I pour my cup of coffee, I will meditate for one minute”
TRY IT OUT: Start integrating the stacked habit into your routine for one week; taking a moment to note at the end of each day: How do you feel with the new habit? Did you stick with the new habit? Does anything need to change?
