An Effective Strategy for Habit Formation

The strategy that I have used to help me build my habits and automate them is, what I call, the “Habit Graduation Strategy.”

Here, I resolved to see my 21 day journey to forming a new habit as a gradual work in progress. My goal was to take small but consistent action every single day and gradually build up my habit.

The important thing for me was to choose an action that I could do every single day without too much resistance. I started with something small. And once I mastered that, I upped the challenge and resolved to do something a tiny bit more challenging. I then resolved to do that every single day.

So, instead of promising yourself to run on the treadmill for 30 minutes every day for 21 days, start by running for 10 minutes on the first day (and do restrain yourself if you feel like you want to run more), and the next day you run for 11 minutes, and the day after for 12 minutes, etc. Within 21 days you will be running for a little more than 30 minutes. In 2 months, you will be running for an hour as result of this 1 minute incremental increase.

Be careful not to challenge yourself too much early on. As you grow into your new habit, reflect on your progress and increase the challenge just a tiny bit.

Remember, every time you increase the challenge too much or too fast, you won’t make progress and you will lose motivation. So pick a challenge that is within your limits. If you’re having an especially tough time (in committing to your run for example), then you can increase your time by just 30 seconds a day. Seconds and minutes will add up quickly and you will surprise yourself by how easy and fun it is. Remember, you have to keep making progress…you can’t expect yourself to run a marathon on the day of the marathon.