Change Your Life – One Tiny Step at a Time

How to Build Habits and Achieve Your Goals Effortlessly

Do you have a gap between the person you are and the person you wish to be? Do you struggle to achieve your goals, even after trying your hardest? You're not alone. Change is hard, especially for adults whose brains are already criss-crossed with established streets and highways, making it challenging to break out of old habits and create new ones.

The good news is, understanding how your brain works and why you do what you do can make change easier. To understand how your brain forms habits, you need to distinguish between routines and habits, and the wise planner and impulsive toddler that execute them.

A routine is a sequence of actions that you carry out the same way every time because they’ve worked out well for you. Routines can eventually turn into habits, which feel much easier because they are basically a sequence of actions carried out without thinking about them.

Habits are executed by an impulsive toddler that responds to your immediate desires based on what is around you, without considering any long-term goals. The wise planner, on the other hand, is responsible for strategizing and mental calculations. It is aware of the future and carefully considers what kind of result you want, even if it means taking an uncomfortable action to achieve a specific outcome.

While the wise planner and impulsive toddler may seem at odds with each other, they actually work together most of the time. The wise planner is responsible for thinking big thoughts and dealing with complex mental challenges, while the impulsive toddler is tasked with handling mundane and repetitive tasks through habits.

So, if you want to achieve your goals effortlessly, you can use the energy-saving mechanisms of habits to make change easier. Small changes are better than aiming high and changing nothing, especially because small changes can do a lot over months and years.

To build a habit, you need to convince your brain that it's not that big of a deal. You can start by choosing a small, specific action, and attaching it to an existing habit or trigger. For example, if you want to start reading more, you can attach the action of reading to an existing trigger like drinking coffee in the morning. The key is to make the new action so easy that it doesn't require much effort or willpower.

Another way to make change easier is to change your environment. If you want to eat healthier, you can make healthy food more accessible and junk food less accessible in your kitchen. If you want to work out more, you can keep your workout clothes and equipment in a visible and convenient location.

In conclusion, understanding how your brain forms habits and the roles of the wise planner and impulsive toddler can help you achieve your goals effortlessly. By focusing on small changes, attaching new actions to existing habits, and changing your environment, you can build new habits that will lead to positive changes in your life. Remember, change is hard, but with the right approach, it's not impossible.