The Ultimate Guide to Habit Formation: Best Practices for Success

How to set them in place so they serve you for the long haul

If you want to change something, make it a habit as quickly as possible. And do it early in the day when your energy is at its highest.

That is the advice of a famous psychologist who understands human vulnerability for not doing what doesn’t feel right. The following recommendations will make change easier.

There is something to be said for solving the reluctance dilemma using habit formation. Below is a quote from Roy Baumeister, a psychologist specializing in self-regulation and habit formation. The selection pertains to willpower and self-control.

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“So, we need to understand that we have this remarkable capacity but that it is not unlimited. It fails sometimes. The key is that self-control works through habits. By setting up good habits, you’re not resisting the temptation or getting yourself out of jams, or fighting the odds, but rather you’re using your self-control to set up life to run on autopilot. Then it does run smoothly.”

I agree with this statement and have seen it resolve my reluctance to change. As Baumeister suggests, a helpful workaround for overcoming reluctance to do anything is setting up a habit of doing something you usually resist for whatever reason. Let me give three examples of how this has worked for me.

I used to ignore or apply the seat belt rule belatedly when already on the road. After getting stopped twice by the police for failure to comply, I knew it was time to get serious.

Cue, Procedure, Reward

I applied Charles Duhigg’s formula for establishing cues, procedures, and rewards for habits. I used this formula to gain control over my costly non-compliance.

Entering the car was the cue; the procedure was installing the belt around my waist, and the reward was not having the loud alert go off for failure to connect.

When committed to weight loss, I needed routines that would help drive down my numbers. Diet and exercise were the best places to start.

In diet, I soon found that, for my body, excess carbs had to be limited. So, I made a rule: only one piece of bread daily. The cue was breakfast time; the procedure was choosing only one piece and no more, and the reward was better weight loss control.

With exercise, many are troubled by disinclination and plain laziness. I began walking 45 minutes daily with my wife and doing a ten-mile bike ride several times weekly.

Here the cue was a suitable time of day dictated by climate conditions. The procedure was movement, and the reward was knowing we were enacting a universally recommended routine by weight-loss experts.

These habits encapsulated resistant behaviors that I changed into routines that were effective means to attain a goal.

Repetition is Key

As I have learned from the psychological literature, the formation of habits is mostly a matter of repetition; but this leaves out an essential characteristic of regular practice, i.e., repeated behavior must acquire a degree of automaticity.

And repetition must be accompanied by the favorable condition of no distractions.

I am thinking here of the obligations to others; or the pull of books, tv, or content attractions of various kinds, blogs, podcasts, and so forth.

Doing the same thing day after day promotes a single-minded focus that raises the chances of eventual goal achievement. Practice does this for you.

I find the reluctance issue less a problem if a habit thwarts hesitancy and a wish to give up. I attribute my success at weight loss (I lost seventy pounds over ten years) to anchoring my long-term persistence in automatic habits. So can you.

Other Best Practices for Habit Formation

A 2018 Harvard School of Public Health study recommends four essential habits for adults. These are eating a healthy diet, regular exercise, modest alcohol consumption, and not smoking.

The strategy for forming good habits is as follows

1. Become laser-focused on a small number of habits at a time. Duhigg suggests working on one habit a month. ‘It’s worth spending a month to change one behavior permanently.’

2. Go for regular aerobic exercises. Researchers found that thirty minutes of moderate aerobic exercise three times a week is ideal. Those who followed this practice also were more inclined to choose such foods as lean meats, fruits, and vegetables.

3. Set micro goals. BJ Fogg at Stanford recommends small steps to get started with any habit. For example, if your goal is to run a marathon, the first step could be to run one mile, or even less, followed by slightly further on the second run, and so on.

4. Use peer pressure. G. Rubin recommends making sure someone is holding you accountable. ‘One of the best ways to effectively build good habits and happiness — also one of the most fun ways — is to join or start a habits group,’ Rubin says.

Rubin says, ‘For many people, accountability is the secret weapon of habit-change. So, tell your friends, tell your enemies, post your training schedule on Instagram, and share your goals on TikTok.’

In Conclusion

Habits make change easier to achieve. There is something to be said for solving the reluctance dilemma using habit formation. I applied Charles Duhigg’s formula for establishing cues, procedures, and rewards for habits. A Harvard School of Public Health study recommends four essential habits for adults. They represent the best practices for good health.

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