When you really break it down everything is a habit.
Walking is a habit.
Public speaking is a habit.
Treating people with kindness is a habit.
Now I know what you’re thinking. “Some people are just natural at certain things, that’s why those habits come so easy to them.”
WRONG.
Actually, if I’m being honest you might have a point. But for the wrong reason. Let me explain.
People are not “just natural” at things. They were placed in an environment where those particular behaviors were encouraged. This is called the natural habit environment.
People who run everyday, or who seem to be able to move and inspire huge crowds of people with only their words all have one thing in common. They placed themselves in a environment to encourage desired behaviors and discourage undesirable ones. Whether they realized it or not at the time.
So in a sense they are “just naturals.” But you can do the exact same thing. You just have to learn how.
I’m going to show you.
And the great part? It’s not as hard as you think it is.
Let me ask you to think about something for a minute. Think of a routine you do every day. Some action or group of actions that you repeat, no matter how big or small.
I’ll wait here.
Ready? Good, welcome back.
Now ask yourself, is the routine hard? Is it challenging for you to complete the routine?
It’s important to have a clear picture of what I’m attempting to say. I don’t mean, do you enjoy the routine.
Let me give you an example.
Almost everyone has some type of commute to and from work every day. Personally, I drive and I hate it. Why? Because driving in L.A. traffic is a soul crushing experience.
But driving is a habit.
And while it’s not my favorite routine in the world, driving is not hard. I’ve been driving for years. As soon as I get in the car my body engages its own autopilot mode. Without even thinking my body takes over and my habits start doing the heavy lifting.
When you really think about it that requires an absurdly small amount of energy. And the more often you drive over time your habits become solidifed and the energy required diminishes.
You can do the same with almost any behavior you want. You just have to treat it like a habit. What most people get wrong about forming habits, especially really difficult ones, is that they try to do too many different things at once.
Let’s use running for example. The decisions your brain has to make in order to run are:
Choose to get out of bed
Choose running shirt
Choose running shorts
Choose running shoes
Choose running socks
Choose running time
Choose running place
Choose running duration
Choose running pace
Choose running music
Choose to ignore the pain
Choose to movitiate yourself to keep going
Those are a mind boggling amount of choices. You might think they sound trivial, but to your brain all of these choices are exhausting and eat away at your self control and will power.
But your brain has a secret weapon at its disposal. Habits are a way for your brain to cut down on the energy it expends to make choices.
“When you build a habit, you don’t have to spend mental energy deciding what to do.” -David Kadavy, Love Your Work podcast
At the very core of this are habit triggers and the natural habit environment that you place yourself in. If your brain recognizes a habit trigger it will subconsciously reach for a familiar action and choice. You will gravitate towards that past behavior almost automatically. Combine all these habit triggers together and you can build your own natural habit environment.
Let’s set up some habit triggers for a morning run.
Trigger 1 — Pick a running outfit. Have every single piece of it ready to go before you go to sleep.
Trigger 2 — Choose a running route and a length of time to run. Consistency is key here. It needs to be the same exact route every time until the habit is formed.
Trigger 3 — Choose a running time. It doesn’t have to be exact, but it should be roughly around the same time. For example, within 30 minutes of waking up.
Trigger 4 — Choose a playlist. Pick a song that really motivates and gets you pumped and put it at the beginning. Don’t shuffle the playlist. Play this song right when you are about to start running.
(The song trigger is huge. When your brain hears the “time to run song” it knows it’s time for action)
Trigger 5 — Choose a running pace. Is your goal interval training or endurance? Use visual markers or landmarks for stretching and slowing your pace.
(My favorite method is to time your running speed to the bpm of the songs on your playlist)
Trigger 6 — Decide how hard you are going to run. You don’t want to set a goal that is too hard or too easy. The first time you run monitor how you feel and set a goal that is fair.
(When I first started I chose to run around a lake exactly one time until it became easier to do more laps)
Thats It.
It’s important to remember that building habbit triggers to create your natural habit environment is a process. It’s important to go at your own pace and make adjustments as needed.
Each time you succesuflly complete a habit trigger you are adding a line of code to your brains built in autopilot program. Even if you aren’t sucessful in completing all of the habits or if your run doesn’t go well, it doesn’t matter.
It is crucial to remember that you are building a foundation.
One habit at a time.
And with each addition you are one step closer to creating your own natural habit environment and whatever goal you set for yourself. Whether that’s inspiring huge crowds with your words or treating everyone with kindness or running two miles every single morning.
Are you ready to get to work? It’s time to create your own luck.
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Thank you so much for reading.
I hope that it made you feel something. Something so powerful that it inspires you to create something great and become someone greater.
And pass that greatness on. Until it spreads out around you and you can look back at your creations with pride.
This is who I’m creating. Who will you Create?
