Our repeated behaviours shape the quality of our lives.

Lasting change starts with self-awareness, alignment, and connecting our habits to our values and identity.

We’re far more likely to follow through with behaviours when our environment supports us.

Many of us have a tendency to move through our days on autopilot, guided by habits we’ve built over time, including some that support us, some that may be holding us back, and some we keep meaning to or wish we could change. The small behaviours we repeat each day may seem insignificant, yet over time, they shape the quality of our lives.

There’s research that suggests that around half of what we do each day is done automatically (Neal et al., 2006). Behaviours we’ve repeated often enough become habits, actions we take with little or no conscious thought. Without them, our brains would be overwhelmed by the sheer number of decisions we’d have to make each day. In many ways, they’re the brain’s way of being efficient.

The challenge is that we often keep doing what we’ve always done simply because the patterns and routines are familiar, even when we know there is a better or different way.

The first step in changing any habit is self-awareness. In my previous post, we explored some key building blocks of behaviour change and the idea that there’s often one behaviour that, if we stopped or started doing it, could make a big difference for us. Here, we’ll look more closely at some of the strategies that can help bring those changes to life.

Before that, I want to share a reframe I find useful. When we think about our habits, it helps to take morality out of the equation and loosen the grip that guilt and shame can sometimes hold. Habits are behaviours we repeat because they’re familiar and often reinforced.........

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