Making Activity a Habit for Good

Most would agree that it’s not the easiest habit for most people, and most people’s experiences consist of starting and stopping and starting again. Don’t beat yourself up about it. The important thing is starting again.

The main problems

So why do most people have trouble making exercise a regular habit? Well, there are probably a number of factors, but here are the main ones that I see:

1. Too difficult. People set out with a lot of ambition and enthusiasm and start out with a big goal. “I’m going to go to the gym for an hour a day!” or “I’m going to run 30 minutes every day!” The problem is that the goal is too difficult to sustain for very long. You can do it for a few days, but you soon run out of energy, or it becomes a drag to do it.
2. Too many goals. Often we set out to do too much. We want to run, and lift weights, and eat healthy, and quit sweets, and stop drinking soda. Well, those are multiple goals, and you cannot focus on the exercise habit if you’re trying to do all the others at the same time. Or we might start with one goal, but then get caught up in another goal (to stop procrastinating, for example), and lose our focus on the first one.
3. Not enough motivation. It’s not a lack of discipline, it’s a lack of motivation. The most powerful motivators, in my experience, are logging your habit and public pressure. There are many others that help as well.

The four simple steps

So how do we solve those problems? Keep it simple. Here are the four simple steps to start the exercise habit (and keep it going). I should note that you can use these four steps to start any habit.

1. Set one easy, specific, measurable goal. There are several keys to setting this crucial goal:

• Written: Write this down. Post it up. If you don’t write it down, it’s not important.
• Easy: Do not set a difficult goal. Set one that is super, super easy. Five minutes of exercise a day. You can do that. Work your way to 10 minutes after a month. Then go to 15 after two months. You can see what I mean: make it easy to start with, so you can build your habit, then gradually increase.
• Specific: By specific, I mean what activity are you going to do, at what time of day, and where? Don’t just say “exercise” or “I’m going to walk.” You have to set a time and place. Make it an appointment you can’t miss.
• Trigger: I recommend that you have a “trigger” right before you do your habit. For example, you might always brush your teeth right after you shower. The shower is the trigger for brushing your teeth, and because of that, you never forget to brush your teeth. Well, what will you do right before you exercise? Is it right after you wake up? Right after your coffee? Right when you get home? As soon as you take off for lunch? A trigger that you do every single day is important.
• Measurable: By measurable, I mean that you should be able to say, definitely, whether you hit or miss your goal today. Examples: run for 10 minutes; walk ½ a mile; do three sets of five pushups. Each of those has a number that you can shoot for.
• One goal: Stick to this one goal for at least a month — two months if you can bear it. Don’t start up a second goal during that first 30-day period. If you do, you are scrapping this goal.

2. Log it daily. This is the key habit. If you can log your workout, you will start to see your progress, and it will motivate you to keep going. And you have to make it a habit to log it right away. Don’t put it off, and say you’ll do it before you go to bed. As soon as you’re done working out, log it. No exceptions. And don’t make the log complicated — that will only make you resist doing the log. Just the date, time, and what you did.

3. Report to others. I think this is key. You can do it on your blog, on an online forum, with your spouse, or friends or family, or a workout partner, or a coach, or a group, or a class. However, you set it up, make it part of the process that you have to report your daily workout to other people. It could be using an online log, or on a forum, or through email, or the phone, or just by telling your co-workers what you did this morning. But be sure that they know your goal, and that you are going to report to them, and be sure that they are expecting it every day.

4. Add motivation as needed. The first three steps might be enough for you to get the habit going. But if not, don’t just give up. If you miss two consecutive workouts, you need to look at why, and add a new motivation — rewards, more public pressure, inspiration — whatever it takes. You can add one additional motivator, and then see if it works. If you miss two more consecutive workouts at any time, add another motivator. And so on, until the exercise habit sticks.