Questions, habits and why unlimited willpower is a falacy
Let’s start with a question…
When was the last time you gave up on something because you didn’t have enough ‘willpower’?
We’ve all been there.
We start with admirable ambitions regardless of whether it’s about improving our health, relationships, knowledge or wealth but as our willpower dwindles all our lofty goals fall by the wayside.
The reason?
Willpower is a massively limited human resource which runs out quickly.
If you try to start a new exercise routing, or improve your financial health, or build relationships using willpower alone it’s likely you’ll fail.
However there is good news…
When willpower takes us a little way….Habits will take us much further.
In all our lives we have a bunch of habits. Habits we’ve developed over time and are part of our daily lives. Habits we don’t think about that much as they have become an integral part of our routine.
From your morning shower, to your commute to the office all the way through to checking facebook, or a cheeky Friday night wine or taking your children (or grandchildren) out on weekends. We all develop habits which form an intrinsic part of our lives.
However if habits are so important this raises another question…
How do we create more positive habits in our lives?
The good news again is there’s plenty of research which tells us what works…
Here’s a few ideas….
- Take a step back and look at your longer term aspirations. Write them down. Then plan the habits
There’s plenty of research which shows the importance of writing down your goals and ensuring their visible. Whether your goals are financial, health related or about how you spend your time it’s been shown that there is value in recording your goals as a starting point.
Then, once you’ve got your big longer term goals and aspirations you can start to create your plan on how to get there. Now if you consider most sensible plans in any aspect of our lives it consists of tens, hundreds or even thousands or small steps regularly repeated to get there…
In other words, your goals and aspirations should to be visible as part of a plan, then broken down into bite size chunks repeated regularly and this is how many habits start to be formed.
- Don’t “Habit multitask”
When we look at all the aspects of our lives, from our financial health, to our relationships all the way through to our physical health they’re may be a bunch of habits we need to change. The temptation might be to want to convert all your not so positive habits into positive ones all at once.
However the research tells us that this might not be the best approach. Humans aren’t particularly good at multitasking and when it comes to building habits it’s best to focus on changing habits one at a time.
Let’s say you want to improve your habits in a bunch of areas of your life…..health, wealth and your close relationships it’s important to focus on changing one specific habit in one specific area.
If it’s in the area of health it might be regular exercise. If it’s wealth it might be saving regularly on the day you are paid and if you choose to focus on relationship it might be more intentional about spending some high quality time with your family.
However focus on one and not all. Focus on the habit you want to change. When this habit becomes an integral part of your life it’s time to focus on another habit.
Therefore the process, simply put is….
Focus on one habit you want to change. Make this habit an integral part of your life. Focus on the next one you want to change.
The reality is that if you try to habit multitask (focus on multiple habits you want to change in a bunch of aspects of our lives) the research tells us that you’re way less likely to achieve any of them.
- Schedule the time
Think about how you manage your time. If something is in your diary, whether your diary is on your computer, still in a little book you keep with you or retained in your head, it’s more than likely to happen right?
Therefore if you’re looking to build a habit it’s important to schedule the time and keep to this schedule.
If you want to exercise more regularly….put it in your diary and stick to your self imposed schedule.
If you want to spend more time with your family….make sure you’ve allocated the time in your diary and stick to it.
and
If you want to build and focus on a financial plan ensure you’ve scheduled the time to regularly review this plan.
In reality the most precious commodity in all our lives is time. By intentionally focusing and ensuring we spend our time changing the habits we want to change to achieve what we want to achieve with our lives we’re more than likely to achieve our goals.
- Hold yourself accountable
Accountability to another person is the most powerful ways to build positive habits.
To a decent extent it’s why we ask for the help of personal trainers, business coaches and financial planners in our lives.
Now there’s no denying that these professionals help in a lot of ways. They provide expert knowledge and bring their experiences….however it’s important not to underestimate the power of having someone who can help you change your habits just by simply holding you accountable to what you’re aiming to achieve.
Hopefully you’ll find these tips useful and of course if you’re looking for someone to help you stay financially accountable to ensure you achieve your financial goals we’d be happy to chat to see if we can help….
You can call us on 01708 606 202 or email CassieDaems@cervellofp.co.uk
