008 – 7 Steps to Turning Perfect Plans that Never Succeed into Habits that Never Fail

Summary: In this case study, we explore how to sustain progress to your goals by building powerful habits. Situation Pierre is a diligent young professional that takes pride in his work.  He is the most detail-oriented and analytical person on his team.  When meeting about another topic, he asks whether we could change gears.  I said sure.  He mentions that he has fairly ambitious goals for himself professionally and personally.  These goals are not just pie in the sky.  Pierre has actually created elaborate plans out how he is going to accomplish these goals.  His issue, he says, is his plans always start with excitement, but demands of a full-time job and family responsibilities get in the way and throw him off his plan. Root Cause After inspecting Pierre's elaborate plans, it is clear that he is leveraging his analytical ability.  The problem is that because these are long-term goals and Pierre's plans are so over-engineered, a slight change or mis-step throws him completely off course.  In addition to his plans, he needs to leverage the power of habits to sustain his progress towards his dreams.   Strategies Here are the 7 steps that Pierre and I discuss to convert his perfect plans that never succeed to habits that never fail:   For every long-term goal, identify the most important recurring action that will move everything else forward Turn the recurring actions into habits.  Be sure to specify the regularity you intend to maintain this habit (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly). Establish an embarrassingly small minimum that you cannot go under within that regular time frame. Allow the habit to "groove" into you lifestyle by giving it time on the runway. Intentionally pick the triggers to your new habits, and always do the action after the trigger. Do the habit as early as possible in the day. Maintain the habit for at least 40 days in order to automate it. Result After 40 days, Pierre reports back on his results.  One of his long-term goals is to write an ebook, but he was really struggling with making progress.  Pierre identifies that he must cultivate a daily writing habit.   He first establishes an absolute minimum of 200 words a day, but beats that minimum considerably on most days.  He never falls below his minimum. Pierre  also starts getting up earlier, and his writing habit is the first thing he does in the morning after his trigger, which is his coffee.  Finally, Pierre maintains the habit for 40 days straight, and is now well on his way to maintaining steady progress to his goals.  He also applies to same 7 steps to start exercising regularly.   What about you?  Do you have over-engineered plans, but no intentional habits?  If you have trouble sustaining your resolutions, try these 7 steps to making steady, robust progress, even when life throws a wrench into your best laid plans.