How to Build the 25 Habits of People who are Happy,

Healthy and Successful

Did you know…?

Happy, healthy and successful people, like the mature tree, have grown deep roots in the important areas of their life. They have, over time and a great number of small actions, built habits that are so fixed, that no one would even try to challenge them.*

*Parable inspired by one found in Darren Hardy’s book The Compound Effect

If you want to find the most happiness and success*, you need to…

* Success in terms of achieving excellence that aligns with your values

Create strong and deeply rooted habits in important areas of your life.

What are these areas?

Health. Wealth. Relationships. Discipline. Emotions.

Intellect. Play.

How do you cultivate habits in those areas with deep roots?

How do you cultivate habits in those areas with deep roots?

Warning: It will take time, effort, and practice.

Believe it or not, you are currently devoting effort and practice in various areas of your life. BUT…

These areas might not be important and you are cultivating bad habits.

How do you replace those bad and unhealthy habits?

Here are the five steps: 1. Track your triggers 2. Scrub and swap 3. Change your identity 4. Set your pace 5. Trigger stacking

1. Track you triggersDid you know that habits have 3 parts?

the trigger the routine the reward

These 3 parts make a habit loop.

Our strongest habits are powered by cravings that are initiated by the trigger and satisfied by the reward.

What is a trigger?

A trigger is what initiates the habit.

And your life is FULL of triggers.

Some examples…

Your stomach rumbling is a trigger for you to eat.

Your teeth feeling slightly flimsy is a trigger to brush your teeth.

There are also less obvious triggers.

Unconscious behaviors can be triggered by people, places, time, energy levels, emotions.

You need to IDENTIFY your triggers for each UNHEALTHY HABIT.

It is extremely easy to do… HOW?

Tracking can be done by simply jotting down a quick note.

Identification of triggers is half the battle because most poor habits are done unconsciously.

Once you’ve tracked your triggers we can use the next step to clear out the poor habits that have grown while you were not paying attention. ;)

2. Scrub and swapYou now know the triggers to a particular habit. Now what?

SCRUB: Avoid the triggers.

If having sweets in the fridge triggers your sweet tooth, you can avoid this by getting sweets out of your house.

SWAP: If you can’t avoid the triggers, you can swap the bad routine for a positive or neutral routine that offers the same reward.

Example…

You found out that when you are frustrated, it triggers your soda drinking habit. Since you can’t avoid the trigger, you can swap the soda with a healthier option.

We covered the first two steps:

1. Track your triggers 2. Scrub and swap 3. Change your identity 4. Set your pace 5. Trigger stacking

Let’s check the 3rd step…

3. Change your identity

Once you’ve made a decision about who you are and where you stand on a particular issue, as long as you stick to it, you no longer have to think much about that issue anymore.

If you decide to change your identity into a health-nut, your internal monologue will go like this….

Should I order fast food? “Nope! I’m a health nut.”

Do I stay up late and watch TV? “Nope! Health nuts need plenty of rest.”

It could be based on positive decisions like…

Want to wake up early and go for a run? “Of course! I’m a health nut.”

What does this tell you?

The decisions you make everyday is based on your identity.

I am a productive worker.

I am someone who plans.

I am someone who is receptive to feedback.

Tweak your identity to put yourself into a super-sized habit loop…

Trigger: decision about an area of life

Routine: reference what “somebody who was like this” would do

Reward: reinforce a sense of identity

4. Set your pace

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.” Jim Rohn

According to new research, it takes 300 instances of positive reinforcement to turn a new habit into an unconscious practice.

However… There is a shortcut!

Awareness.

Track and focus on a habit for 3 weeks. You will have a far better chance of making that habit a lifelong practice.

So how do you set your pace?

When starting a new change it is important not to do too much too soon.

Do not waste your enthusiasm on unsustainable changes.

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” – Teddy Roosevelt

You need to start where you are.

If you were wanting to start a swimming regime for your health, no competent trainer would give you Michael Phelps’ routine and tell you to get paddling.

Gentle reminders:

Limit the number of new habits to one (1)

Be realistic about the intensity at which you set your long term habits

Finally, the 5th step

5. Trigger stacking

“Trigger (or habit) stacking is the quickest way to build a new habit into your life.” James Clear

It’s simple. Use this sentence stem:

Before/After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].

Reading: Before I eat breakfast, I will read 10 pages.

Meditation: After I make my bed, I will meditate for 5 minutes.

Planning: After dinner on Sunday, I will plan my week.

Start your trigger stacking.

Write out a list of the current habits that you do each day. Then write out a second list of the habits you want to start.

There you have it. The 5 steps on replacing your bad habits.

What happened to the 25 habits of Happy, Healthy and Successful people???

To get more details on the 25 habits, please go to:

http://www.asianefficiency.com/habits/successful-habits/

(We’ll also send you a free habit tracker that you can use.)