Get off to a SOLID Start

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Notice I didn’t say, “fast start”. That would be easy to do. I could give you our book and say, “Here you go, GOOD LUCK” and if you fail, well that is your fault. But I don’t believe in luck, I believe in strategy and sticking to it. That is why I call this a solid start. I want to make sure that you are planted on solid ground ready to go after the 7 Steps and accomplish your goal. You will do that by preparing first and getting off to a right start.

 

I know you probably want immediate change, so do millions of people who make New Year’s Resolutions and because it was done on a whim without preparation it only lasted a short time. Seven steps of preparation won’t hurt you. In fact, it will give you the impetus to really do it!

 

​​​​​​​​Step 1  WHAT IS YOUR HABIT GOAL?

It is surprising how many people try to stop or start a habit and never stop to think strategically about the goal they are setting before them. Let’s see if we can zero in on what you want to change.

 

CONSIDER THIS - Do you need to start with a mini-goal?

A mini-goal can help you get going. Here is my rule of thumb. If you are stopping a habit, jump all in! If you are adding a new habit, consider a mini-goal.

 

What is the goal you want to add? Start off with a small, achievable increments, then increase until you get to your goal.

 

Step 2  Secondary habits and substitutes

Creating a new habit or extinguishing an old one is not an easy task. It just doesn’t happen by itself. It takes planning and preparation.

Now that you know what your goal is--what could get in your way? There are many saboteurs waiting to trip you up. Many come in the form of what I call secondary habits.

 

Secondary Habits – Most of the time a habit doesn’t sit in isolation. It is surrounded with other habits that work in harmony with it. Consider the case of eating sugary treats. Ask yourself…

When do you eat them?

Where do you eat them?

Who do you eat them with?

What kind do you eat?

What mood are you in when you crave them?

What are you thinking when the craving hits?

What are you believing when you try to resist?

 

If you look over your answers to the questions above, you will note that some of the answers are predictable and consistent, they are habits! Therefore, it makes sense that if you can change some of these secondary habits, it will help you resist and overcome the habit you are seeking to change or add.

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So, what secondary habits might you need to work on?

Write them down with a plan on how you are going to behave differently in order to change your habit goal.

 

Step 3 - PICK YOUR TEAM – Get the support you need

You have your habits listed and have chosen secondary goals that are needed for each one. Now you need to get a support team around you.

 

Step 4 - Tools and knowledge – start learning now

There is a learning curve in any worthwhile endeavor. Adding a new habit or changing an existing one is no exception.

 

Knowledge –  There are many materials that you can find on our website and other internet sources. Our course , Habit Challenge (or the book) would be a great start. There are books, videos and online articles that you can study. Be careful however. You can also get what is called, “Paralysis of analysis.” This is where you have information overload and never get about making changes.

 

Tools – Often there are apps that can make a difference in your success or not. We have created the Habit Challenge App that comes with out Habit Challenge course. How often we approach a project and become discouraged because it is taking too long where the right kind of tool could reduce the time spent and be more encouraging to you as you attempt to succeed at your habit    challenge. Like knowledge you can distract from your goal by having to learn new tools or to try out different ones. There is a time for research and experimenting to stop and move on to the habit challenge.

 

Step 5 Do’s, Don’ts and Desires
When you consider habits, whether it is one that you are adding or one that you are taking away there are always behaviors that are more important than others. These key behaviors influence others and if not taken seriously can ruin your whole effort. You need to consider what behaviors you don’t want to do, those that you do want to do and how to keep the desire and motivation strong so you can accomplish your goal.

Don’t
What is the habit goal? 
What behaviors do you need to eliminate in order to succeed?
What triggers (Places, people or things that would cause you to begin the behavior that you are trying to eliminate or cause you to veer from the habit you are starting.) do you need to negate from your life?
What thoughts would cause you to sway from your habit challenge? 


Do
Write down the things you need to do to succeed at your goal. 
 

Desire
Desire is what makes it all happen. What are the desires you are really seeking after? What emotional payback would there be from accomplishing you goal? What pleasure, confidence, emotions would accompany the reaching of your goals? What physical rewards might there be? Is there a monetary potential that would be the result of making your goal? Are there any Spiritual benefits that would be the result of you achieving your goal?

We are wired for reward so it makes sense to use the anticipated reward as an incentive when your discipline is weaning or you become discouraged. Rewards vary. They can be of an emotional, physical, monetary and/or spiritual nature. Take a few moments and think of the rewards that you will benefit from when you accomplish your habit challenge.

Emotional reward
Physical reward
Monetary rewards
Spiritual benefits

Spend a moment visualizing yourself succeeding and reaping the various rewards. Let it sink into your heart and bring you real joy. Keep this list in front of you. Perhaps there is a picture, drawing, a song or something symbolic that will be reminded of your desire and hopefully reignite it. If so keep it somewhere that you can encounter it often.

With this deep desire in your heart recommit yourself to accomplishing your habit goals. 
 

Step 6  The Habit Formula

The Habit Formula is basically:

• Trigger (Cue or Stimulus)

• Response (Behavior)

• Reward (Gain or Benefit)

 

The following are some ways of dealing with habits and cravings

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A trigger is what gets us going with our habit. It can be in our environment, our body or in our mind. It could be something we see, hear, smell or feel; something we sense or something we perceive or think.  When the trigger happens then we have our response. This is what the trigger is driving us toward. It is what we need to do in order to gte the reward we are seeking. The reward is what we gain from participating in our response. There are different ways we can affect the habit formula in order to change our behavior.

 

Change the TRIGGER

A. Recognize the trigger (sensation)

B. Change the meaning of the trigger by renaming it as a false alarm

 

Change the RESPONSE

A. Relax, you are not going to die!

B. Affirm that you do not have to obey the false alarm

 

Change the RESPONSE

A. Distract yourself

B. Ride the wave

 

Change the REWARD

A. Visualize better behavior

B. Visualize a better outcome

 

Step 7​  Trigger Management

Habits don’t pursue us 24/7. Rather, if you track your behavior you will find that your habit challenges are stronger at certain times than others. It is the mixture of time, people and places that make up the perfect storm. You can gain a lot of ground in your quest to change your habits and crush your cravings if you focus on those “triggers” and create--and rehearse--a plan for managing them ahead of time.

 

Manage emotional reasons that trigger your habit

Manage the situations you live in

Manage your residence

Manage where you work and frequent

Your appearance (If it plays into your habit)

 

Triggers are real but with good planning you can manage them!

 

SO WHAT IS YOUR HABIT GOAL?

                           In order to get started with this Habit Challenge app you need to have a goal in mind. What is it you                             want to change?

 

                           It is surprising how many people try to change a habit and never stop to think about the goal they                                 are setting before them. Let’s see if we can zero in on what you want to change.

 

1. Be specific - What is the actual Habit you want to add or take away?

 

Many times, our goal is too general, for instance, “I want to be healthy.” Okay, what does that mean? What habits does that effect? Exercise, eating, sleeping, reducing stress or nutrition? Be specific and write down your goal

 

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2. What reasons do you want to drop this habit or start a new one? 

This is key. It will help you when the going gets tough. Write down why you want to pursue this goal. What are the rewards you will get from it?

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3. Be realistic – How difficult will it be?

Is this your first time? Have you tried before and relapsed? Either way, as you think of this habit you are going to break or new one you are going to add--rate the difficulty on a scale 1-5 (1 = should be a snap, 5 It will be a very difficult challenge).

Circle the level of difficulty  1…2…3…4…5

 

Do you need to start with a mini-goal?

A mini-goal can help you get going. Here is my rule of thumb. If you are stopping a habit, jump all in! It is difficult to wean yourself from a habit. If you drag it out over an extended* period, it only continues the habit longer and keeps the craving coming. Your habit may be the exception, but most people are better off going cold turkey.

 

*If you want to progressively wean yourself, then go into it with a schedule and stick to it. Don’t fool yourself.

 

Where a mini-goal really works is when you are adding a new habit. 

When I first started running, my goal was to eventually run 3-4 miles a day. However, I started with a ½ mile the first day (after all, how far do you need to run to be a runner?). In my mind the first ½ mile qualified me. So, I began! The first few days, I ran ¼ mile--sat down, and then ran back a ¼ mile! I got stronger every day and since that humble beginning, I have logged over 20,000 miles, either running or walking!

 

What is the goal you want to add? Start off with a small, achievable increments, then increase until you get to your goal.

 

Here are some of the ways I approached my habits

Running – mini goal and worked up

Lifting weights – mini-goal - light weight, low reps, built my way up.

Quit caffeine – Cold turkey

Quit sugar and carbs- Cold turkey

Quit biting nails -  Cold turkey

Daily devotions – Mini-goal, read one chapter of the Bible a day, worked my way up

 

What is your goal? ____________________________________________________________

 

What would be a great starting mini-goal? _________________________________________

 

How long will you give yourself to get up to your goal? _______________________________

 

4. PreLive it.

PreLive™ is an exercise where we imagine accomplishing the task at hand. We use all our senses. We visualize it, hear it, taste it, feel it, touch it. Whatever senses we can incorporate--we use them to create a vivid and realistic vision of accomplishing the goal.

 

STOP! Take 3 minutes and visualize yourself accomplishing your goal. See it, feel it.

Feel the excitement and satisfaction of accomplishing it!

 

How To Record Your Progress

Now that you have a habit you need to use the app to record your progress.

 

How To Add A New Habit

1. You add a new Habit that you want to change or begin by hitting the Record Today’s Progress button.

 

Go to the bottom of the page and click on Create New Habit. This will allow you to write in the name of the habit you are starting on.

 

2. Once you have written in the habit, NEXT click on the Choose Habit Length drop down icon. It will give you a choice between 10, 21, 28 or 60 Day Challenge. Choose the one you feel will be long enough to master the new habit. Sometimes I just start with 10 days. Then once I am doene with that I redo it for 60 days!

 

3. Next you can set an alarm if you want to help remind you to record your progress. If the night time is when you are most tempted you can set the alarm just before that time so you can encourage and motivate yourself to make it through the night without relapse.

You can set the time and toggle the button to where the alarm is off or on. (Red is on)

HINT – If you have more that one habit that you are working on around the same time you may only want to have the alarm on for one habit and keep it off for the others. This way you are not overly reminded with multiple alarms.

 

Now your habit is ready. Simply click on SAVE and you are ready to go.

 

Record Today’s Progress

The power of this app is in the daily recording of your habits. It will help reinforce your habit and encourage you in your progress.

 

HERE IS HOW IT WORKS

Simply click on the habit you are choosing to record your progress with:

 

Let’s say you recorded - Stop Sugar

 

When you click on the Habit it will display the dates of your Habit Challenge (depending on whether you chose 10, 21, 28 0r 60 day Habit) It asks a simple question, “Did you succeed today?” They you can click on either, Yes or No.

 

If you click on “YES”, it will give you applause or a encouraging motivating message.

 

If you click on “No” that is okay. Try for the next day.

A slip once in a while is not a reason to quit. You want to keep trying. However, if you have too many slips then you are not ready yet and need to stop and regroup. Simply hit the Delete Habit button, then go back to our Habit Challenge Book and rethink your situation. Also seek some help from someone you trust that knows about your kind of habit. When ready start over again fresh. Whatever you do, don’t quit. You have come this far. It is too important not to finish what you have started.

 

Delete Habit

If you have mastered your goal ahead of time or have finished the amount of days designated, then you can hit the Delete Habit button.

 

Use the other Buttons

In order to keep you going and help you succeed use our other buttons. Go ahead and click on each one so you can see what they are about and how they can help you. They when you need them simply CLICK on the button you need.

• Manage Your Trigger Checklist

• Craving Intensity Meter

• Spiritual Tool Box

• Craving Tool

• Relapse Warning Signs

• 5 Steps To Overcome Craving