The Secret to Lasting Behavior Change

Hi there!

Welcome back to the MoodiNews. Every Thursday, we discuss a variety of matters related to mental health and self-improvement.

I’m so glad you’re here.

Today, we will be discussing: THE POWER OF HABITS! YAY!

In completing our January series on goal-setting today, it’s important to highlight how incorporating habits into your action plan can help you achieve your goals for 2024.

Today’s post is a synopsis of some game-changing concepts from the book, Atomic Habits, that can help you crush your New Year’s Resolutions for 2024.

(Shoutout to author James Clear, who is a world-renowned expert on habits. I can’t recommend his book enough—it helped me immensely in my own recovery!)

Here’s what you need to know:

1) Whenever you want to accomplish something new, focus on SYSTEMS rather than GOALS.

Goals that are achieved in isolation from your current lifestyle will not last.

In order to make a new behavior stick, it needs to become a commonplace, everyday occurrence (i.e., a systemic change).

So, instead of clinging to specific goals this year, focus instead on building new systems that will turn your resolution(s) into daily habits.

The idea is to build a new lifestyle that will support your goals long-term, so that you can continue to maintain change well into the future.

(For example, instead of telling yourself that you want to write a book this year (goal), develop a new habit where you write for 15 minutes every day no matter what (system). This practice, over time, will inevitably produce results (you’ll naturally produce something with your effort), and it will also introduce a new writing routine that you can maintain long after your first book is published.)

2) Focus on IDENTITY rather than OUTCOME when seeking change.

Changing your identity can be a major source of behavior change, because action reinforces identity, and identity stems from action.

If you start to identify as the type of person who is known for doing the kinds of things that you want to achieve in 2024, then you’re more likely to engage in those desired behaviors yourself—over and over again.

Our identity holds a lot more psychological weight for us than any goal ever will—so, instead of forcing yourself do something that’s new to you, you can more easily compel yourself to change by shifting your identity to match your goals.

This simple mindset change can be very motivating—just make sure that you challenge mood dependent behavior and do what you need to do in order to follow through with it, or else you will lose self-respect (and have lots of anxiety!).

(For example, rather than trying to lose 20 pounds, start to identify as an athlete. Athletes prioritize fitness and health—so if you decide to become an athlete, that will automatically entice you to do lots of activities that will help you lose 20 lbs.)

3) Use your ENVIRONMENT to help you change.

Friction always accompanies change—it’s inevitable.

You can, however, reduce the amount of friction that you experience while pursuing your goals by making adjustments to your surrounding environment.

When working on behavior change, it’s important to remember that change takes effort, so you must conserve your willpower.

You can do this by eliminating as many temptations as possible in your immediate environment that might otherwise distract or pull you away from your goals.

The idea here is to rearrange your environment in such a way that makes good habits very convenient and bad ones very inconvenient—thereby letting your laziness work in your favor!

(Example: If you’re trying to watch less TV, you can leave the remote control at your office or get rid of your TV altogether—this might feel like a major sacrifice initially, but it’s hard to watch too much TV when you don’t even have one that works!)

In summation, by working on building new systems, changing your identity to match your goals, and designing an environment that will support your success in 2024, you will be well on your way to achieving your New Year’s resolutions.

Remember: The secret to lasting behavior change is HABIT FORMATION—habits are THE most straightforward and effective way to gradually close the gap between who you are and who you want to be, regardless of your goals!

I hope that these suggestions prove helpful to you as you continue to pursue your goals for 2024.

Cheers to your endeavors!