How to Coach Yourself and Others Essential Knowledge For Coaching | Page 207

The Habit Change Cheatsheet
The following is a compilation of tips to help you change a habit.
Don’t be overwhelmed — always remember the simple steps
above. The rest are different ways to help you become more
successful in your habit change.
1. Do just one habit at a time. Extremely important. Habit
change is difficult, even with just one habit. If you do more than
one habit at a time, you’re setting yourself up for failure. Keep it
simple, allow yourself to focus, and give yourself the best chance
for success. Btw, this is why New Year’s resolutions often fail —
people try to tackle more than one change at a time.
2. Start small. The smaller the better, because habit change is
difficult, and trying to take on too much is a recipe for disaster.
Want to exercise? Start with just 5-10 minutes. Want to wake up
earlier? Try just 10 minutes earlier for now. Or consider half
habits.
3. Do a 30-day Challenge. In my experience, it takes about 30
days to change a habit, if you’re focused and consistent. This is a
round number and will vary from person to person and habit to
habit. Often you’ll read a magical “21 days” to change a habit, but
this is a myth with no evidence. Seriously — try to find the
evidence from a scientific study for this. A more recent study
shows that 66 days is a better number. But 30 days is a good
number to get you started. Your challenge: stick with a habit
every day for 30 days, and post your daily progress updates to a
forum.
4. Write it down. Just saying you’re going to change the habit is
not enough of a commitment. You need to actually write it down,
on paper. Write what habit you’re going to change.
5. Make a plan. While you’re writing, also write down a plan.
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