63: Good Habits Create Goal Achievement

In today’s episode, I dive into the recent books I read that helped me discover that good habits create goal achievement.

I’m going to talk about some things from the book. And I will incorporate it into writing because I think it is really important to translate it into our writing business.

Atomic Habits
The Power of Habit

All of us can say that we want to be millionaires, own our own businesses, etc etc, but until we put those habits into place to help create goal achievement, nothing will happen. For me, it’s not goals that make our business move forward. It’s the habits that make us achieve success.

The Habit Loop and How Can We Build Good Habits

What is a habit loop? How can you differentiate bad habits form good habits? How can we break from bad habits?

In these books, they talked about the habit loop. Remember that your habits are responsible for most of what you do.

First is the Cue. A cue is something that cue’s you to do it. It is anything that triggers your behavior that usually leads to a sequence of behavior. The second is Craving. Cravings respond to how you feel after the cue. And last is the Reward, it is the reason that the action has become a habit. The reward can be anything that satisfies a craving.

Let’s talk about bad habits.  The brain only sees the cue and the reward. So, if you are craving something, that’s fine. But the cue before the craving is what matters. If you have the cue to check on social media instead of doing something else like working on your client’s work, we all probably fall into this loop because it is an easy thing to do.

What happens when we break that habit? How do we stop these bad habits? From the perspective of the writers, we need to start working on our client’s work. We can’t always scroll on our social media. I know it is not that simple. You need to make it as easy as possible to get away from your bad habits.

1. Identify your cue. If your phone is sitting and popping notifications beside you while you are working, put it away. That is the easiest thing to do.
2. Break your bad habits and stick to good ones. Start rehearsing your good habits. Give yourself some timeline. Say, for instance, know when your energy is leveled up for work; maybe if you get up early in the morning and do not check your phone, you can finish your client’s work on time.
3. Treat yourself. Everybody loves to get a reward. Get a Starbucks coffee after your work is done, something little just to say a good job on yourself.
4. Write it down. Write down what you are going to do differently. Say you’re not going to have any more distractions for 20 mins. four times a day. And start practicing that every day.
5. Start habit stacking. This is from James Clear’s book: The Atomic Habit. One example is when I wake up, I will not check my phone until I write for 15 mins. Start taking your good habits. Make yourself better every day. Find those happy hours in a day to really shine the best you can

What about if you want to change your bad habit? Always understand the cue behind the things that you do.

Do you need more resources to help you build good habits? Check out other episodes of The Savvy Scribe Podcast.

Episode 23 – Need More Time? The Process to Streamline from a Paper to Digital Planner

Episode 31- Mastering your Digital Calendar with Google Calendar

Episode 44: 168 Hours in a week – use them or lose them