In our Rest for Success article, we sketched out what a healhty bedtime routine might look like. We also talked briefly about getting good at getting good habits. In this article we'll look at habits in depth, and how they relate to the health of your neck, back, and joints.
The goal takes care of itself
Focusing on your goals may seem like the right approach, but it can often lead to disappointment, which can cause you to abandon the whole effort. You want to lose 30 pounds. You keep checking the scale. A month goes by. Another month. Not there yet. Wah!
James Clear, the author of Atomic Habits, recommends that instead of goals, we focus on our system. By refining our good-habit system, the goal takes care of itself.
First step: Measure
An honest inventory is a good place to start. How do you spend your time? If you want to exercise every other day, measuring that effort is key. The act of measuring isn’t actually about keeping score — it’s about bringing awareness to the habit you want to make, or the one you want to break.
Make it obvious — or invisible
Want to make sure you do your yoga or physical therapy every morning? Make it obvious. Put your yoga clothes and mat out the night before. Want to break up with a social media app that’s taking over your life? Turn off notifications, and remove the app’s icon from your home screen. Habits need triggers. Set up a cue in your environment for your healthy habit and remove the cue for your unwanted habit.
Make it attractive — or as unattractive as possible
How can you make yoga or physical therapy more attractive? Find a lovely online teacher, like Lesley Fightmaster. Find an essential oil you love, like lavender, that you only apply before your yoga class.
How can you make Tik Tok as unappealing sa possible? You could read a few articles about social media addiction, and continually reflect on the kind of person you want to be, and what you want to do with your one life.
But a positive approach is more effective. Start a new habit that makes doing the old one less attractive. Our neighbor Tom smoked for many years. It wasn’t until he rediscovered the joy of running — a habit that reduced his stress more effectively than nicotine did — that he was able to quit for good.
Make it easy — or very difficult
If you want to play more music, make it easy. Have a dedicated room for playing, keep your guitar in tune, find a book of songs you love to play along with. Promise to play for just a minute a day — but show up every day at the same time to do it. Once you establish the routine, you'll find yourself playing longer.
If you delete social media apps from your phone, you’ll need to open your laptop and use the website version of the app. Anything that increases friction around the unwanted behavior will help break the spell.
Make it satisfying — or unsatisfying
To live your best life, it’s best to think long-trem. But when making and breaking habits, the short-term reward is the most important thing.
“What is immediately rewarded is repeated, what is immediately punished is avoided.”
How is it that we know eating healthy food is going to be better for us, but we still fail to do it? Knowing is not enough. Parts of our brain are wired for short-term rewards. Best to acknowledge that and incorporate it into our habit-forming systems. We need to feel successful in order to continue. The beauty is, our reward sytem can be as simple as adding a gold star to a calendar.
Apply the ideas to your life
This animated video uses visuals to summarize the book and to present an example of how to put the ideas into action:
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