“We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence then, is not an

act, but a habit.” Sobering words from Aristotle, and an
astute reminder that success doesn’t come overnight. On the
contrary, it’s discipline that gets you from Point A to the
often elusive Point B.

I
n our day-to-day lives, habits can often be tough to build, as there
are plenty of distractions that can lead us off the “straight and
narrow” and right back to our old ways. To alleviate some of those
troubles we can examine some academic research on motivation,
discipline, and habit building, and break down their findings into
actionable steps that any aspiring habit-builder can put into place.

1. Make “micro quotas” and “macro goals”

In a fascinating study on motivation, researchers found abstract
thinking to be an effective method to help with discipline. In the
most basic sense, “dreaming big” is pretty good advice after all.
And since a variety of research around the self-determination
theoryshows us that creating intrinsic motivators (being
motivated to do things internally, not through punishments or
rewards) is an essential process of building habits that stick, you
need to find a way to balance this desire to dream big with your
day-to-day activities, which often do not result in quick, dramatic
changes.
The answer is to create what I call “micro quotas” and ”macro
goals.” Your goals should be the big picture items that you wish to
someday accomplish, but your quotas, are the minimum amounts
of work that you must get done every single day to make the
bigger goal a reality. Quotas make each day approachable, and
your goals become achievable because of this.

Writer/developer Nathan Barry has made for a great case study of

the use of these quotas as someone who forced himself to write
1000 words per day come hell or high-water. The result was three
self-published books resulting in thousands of dollars in sales.

2. Create behavior chains

Creating sticky habits is far easier when we make use of our
current routines, instead of trying to fight them. The concept of if-
then planning is built around environmental “triggers” that we
can use to let us know that it’s time to act on our habit. Also
knownimplementation intentions, this tactic involves picking a
regular part of your schedule and then building another “link in
the chain” by adding a new habit.

For instance, instead of “I will keep a cleaner house,” you could

aim for, “When I come home, I’ll change my clothes and then
clean my room/office/kitchen.” Multiple studies confirm this to
be a successful method to rely on contextual cues over willpower.
So the next time you decide to “eat healthier,” instead try “If it is
lunch time, Then I will only eat meat and vegetables.”

3. Eliminate excessive options

According to a variety of research on self-control  —and
expounded upon in books like The Willpower Effect — there is
great power in being boring. Take, for instance, Barack Obama’s
insistence on never wearing anything but blue and gray suits.
According to the president, “I’m trying to pare down decisions. I
don’t want to make too many decisions about what I’m eating or
wearing. Because I have too many other decisions to make.”

The president’s belief is well supported by the research—Kathleen

Vohs and her colleagues’ study on self-control found that making
repeated choices depleted the mental energy of their subjects,
even if those choices were mundane and relatively pleasant.
According tothe Harvard Business Review, if you want to
maintain long term discipline, it’s best to “Identify the aspects of
your life that you consider mundane — and then ‘routinize’ those
aspects as much as possible. In short, make fewer decisions.”

For lasting change, the steps you take must ultimately change
your environment and schedule. Stop buying snacks if you want
to stop snacking (no willpower needed), pack a very similar lunch
every day of the week, and embrace the power of routine to get the
necessary done each day.

4. Process plan (but don’t fantasize)

The step that many people skip when they fantasize about
building a certain habit is they never clearly answer why they
want the change to occur. It may seem like a small detail, but it
plays a huge role in keeping our motivation up over time. A
variety of research shows us that excessive fantasizing about
results can be extremely detrimental to the stickiness of any habit.

According to this study from UCLA, the mistake is in what we

visualize. Researchers found that those participants who engaged
in visualizations that included the process of what needed to be
done to achieve the goal (ex: fantasizing about learning another
language, by visualizing themselves practicing every day after
work) were more likely to stay consistent than their peers (that
visualized themselves speaking French on a trip to Paris). The
visualization process worked for two reasons:

Planning: visualizing the process helped focus attention on

the steps needed to reach the goal.
Emotion: visualization of individual steps led to reduced
anxiety.
5. Eliminate “ah-screw-its”
New habits are often very fragile, and it is for this reason that
wemust eliminate any source of friction that may lead us astray.
These “ah-screw-it” moments (hat tip to blogger Derek Halpern)
are the specific moments where you find yourself saying, “Screw
this, it’s not worth the effort!” A more scientific take on this
phenomenon is called the What the Hell Effect, which explains
why we are so likely to abandon ship with a new habit at the first
slip-up.

The solution? Examine your habit and find exactly where things
start to break down. In a great example of putting this in action,
Author and 99U speaker Ramit Sethi has explained how he
improved his gym attendance by finding where things would slip:
When I sat down to analyze why I wasn’t going to the gym, I realized: my closet was in

another room. That meant I had to walk out in the cold [to] put on my clothes. It was easier

to just stay in bed. Once I realized this, I folded my clothes and shoes the night before. When

I woke up the next morning, I would roll over and see my gym clothes sitting on the floor. The

result? My gym attendance soared by over 300%.

You can even incorporate an “if-then” scenario once you find the
culprit. For instance, if fatigue is stopping you from playing guitar
after work, you could set up a system of “If I’m feeling tired after
work, then I will take a 20-minute nap and listen to music for five
minutes to get myself motivated.”

What about you?

How do you create new regular habits?