How Habits Contribute to Your Business Success
As a business owner, there are a million little daily habits that could help further your success, such as reading industry news, going to networking meetings, or even just getting enough sleep. In this article, I’ll dive into how developing new habits contribute to your success.
No matter how good new habits might be, if they’re not already a part of your routine, it can be difficult to add them in. Why?
Because your brain is already hardwired to behave in a different manner – and trying something new requires a lot of thought and energy on your brain’s part. Your brain, frankly, would rather just keep on doing what it’s been doing.
How Do Habits Work?
A habit is something that you do automatically, without even thinking about it – like turning on the coffee pot as soon as you get out of bed. They form through a psychological process called “the habit loop:
A cue or trigger tells your brain to go into autopilot and let the behavior unfold
You perform a routine, which is the habit itself
Lastly is a reward, which your brain likes and will help it remember the habit loop in the future
Why is it So Difficult to Change a Habit?
According to the Journal of Clinical Psychology, approximately 54% of people who resolve to change a habit fail to make that change stick for more than six months. It’s not that they don’t know what to do, it’s that they can’t fully commit.
The problem, for most of them, is that the goal they’ve set for themselves is just TOO BIG. When you ask your brain to do too much at once, it can’t handle it.
If you want to create new habits, you have to rewire your brain to do something different – a little bit at a time.
How to Create a New Habit
Baby Steps – Or what I like to call: Micro Habits
The key to building lasting habits that will contribute to your success is to take one micro step in the right direction.