This used to really infuriate me with my clients when trying to form habits

They have always been people with a lot of responsibility. CxO’s, Partners, Doctors, Judges, Entrepreneurs etc

But back in my personal training days working with these folks I would be pulling my hair out trying to get them to create the habits necessary to achieve what they were paying me for.

Their lives were just so unpredictable.

They would get incredible results in 21,30 and even 60 day programs but eventually they would regress back to mean and back to the shape they were previously in.

That’s when I started exploring neuroscience and quickly discovered where I was going wrong.

This is really important if you want to form a habit.

A habit is formed when a behaviour is adopted by the basil ganglia in the brain not by doing enough forced repetitions.

In fact willpower is the enemy of habit.

The basil ganglia is on the lookout for two things,

effectiveness i.e. did this get me more of what I want with a little effort comparative to the reward.

And am I socially safe while doing it i.e. am I gaining connection or hierarchy

These things may not seem important to you but they are incredibly important to the brain. If you wish to form a habit they must be a primary considerations when designing your approach.

From then on I put these thing front and centre. Locating the micro changes that would have the greatest impact with the least investment and then making them fit around others.

When each new habit creates actual change in the brain we actually become different people and so more ready, willing and able to adopt the next habit.

Have you been trying to make huge leaps forward only to slide back to square one?

If so perhaps this approach is worth a try.