As you know, setting goals doesn’t ensure their achievement, especially if they are vague. To combat this, chip away at your goal in small, incremental steps, and build habits that contribute to its accomplishment. This way, you can turn success into a series of daily actions.

1.     Work on only one habit at a time.

Our willpower is finite, so we have to be smart about adding new actions into our routine. If you work only on one habit at a time, your store of willpower can be channelled into completing that one thing, increasing the odds of success.

So, the question is: “What one new habit do you want to form?”

Identify it and learn everything you can about how to do it right.

2.     Accessible trigger.

You have to have a trigger to the habit you are trying to develop. If you want to start drinking 2 liters of water per day, a cup of it should be by your bed every single morning.

3.     Easy-to-implement action.

The only way to make a habit stick is to turn it into automatic behaviour. You can do this by taking baby steps and creating a low level of commitment; so low that it is impossible to fail. For example, if your goal is to stay hydrated during the day, try having one glass of water in the morning as the first step.

4.     A speedy award.

A new habit doesn’t have to be boring or dreadful. Focus on building a reward system into the process so you can take time to celebrate the successful completion of your goals. It is best if the habit is a reward in itself, like feeling refreshed after having a fresh glass of lemon water upon waking up. Otherwise, it can be something pleasurable you do right after the completion of the action.

By Gyuzel Akhmetova MA in Foreign languages.

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