An Easy Yet Effective Way to Build Lasting Healthy Habits

In the pursuit of a healthier lifestyle, we often think that we need to have motivation to want to practice healthy habits.

Another school of thought suggests that motivation is often fleeting, and in order to successfully build a long-term habit, we need to focus on developing discipline to do the habit even on days that we don’t feel like it.

But what if I told you there's a simpler way, that you don’t have to rely on either discipline or motivation to start and maintain a healthy habit?

If you’ve ever read “Atomic Habits” by James Clear, then you’re familiar with the idea of making the habit that you’re trying to build obvious.

Basically, the idea is that designing your surroundings in a way that makes the desired habit more visible and prominent increases the likelihood of you engaging in it.

It’s based on the fact that it’s much easier to control your environment than your emotions.

He gives an example of a doctor who decreased consumption of soda and simultaneously increased the consumption of water by hospital staff and visitors simply by changing the locations where bottled water was available around the hospital.

The image below shows what the hospital looked like before the changes (Figure A) and after the changes (Figure B). The dark boxes indicate areas where bottled water is available.

The hospital staff was used to drinking soda and other beverages because that’s what was easily accessible to them.

Increasing the number of locations where bottled water was found made it more accessible, giving people an option to choose water over soda.

You see, “habits” are defined as actions that are triggered automatically in response to either internal or external cues.

In other words, something happens that prompts you to act in a specific way without even thinking about it.

Habits happen subconsciously, and every habit is initiated by a cue.

These cues could be either related to time, location, or an emotion, and they could be either visual or auditory.

Your morning alarm (auditory) tells you it’s time to wake up and start your day (time).

Seeing a chocolate bar (visual) on the kitchen counter (location) prompts you to eat it.

A notification sound (auditory) goes off on your phone and you automatically pick it up .

You feel bored and you reach for your comfort show (emotion).

Your surroundings, whether consciously or subconsciously, are always sending cues and signals to your mind, prompting specific behaviors.

The constant presence of these cues in your environment leads to a repetition of a certain behavior, eventually making it a habit — performing the action without consciously thinking about it.

By having a basic understanding of how a habit is developed — a cue that prompts an action — you can build better habits simply by modifying your cues.

If you could “transfer” the initiation of a desired action to an external cue (that is, something in your surroundings), your dependence on discipline and motivation significantly reduces.

One of the most effective ways you can do this is to use visual cues.

Strategically place visible cues in your surroundings to serve as reminders to perform a certain habit every time you see them.

Designing your environment in this way can be done in two ways:

1. Increase your exposure to positive cues — make the healthy choice the most obvious choice

2. Decrease your exposure to negative cues — make the unhealthy choice hard to do

By doing this, you can create an environment that supports your goals and makes it easier to build positive habits without solely relying on your willpower.

Even when your willpower is at its lowest, or when you don’t have the motivation to do the habit, your environment is already designed to help you make good decisions.

Making a healthy choice is easy and natural when the cues for healthy habits are right in front of you.

Now, let’s look at some examples of how you can apply this in your daily life:

1. Goal: Take supplements every morning

   Cue: Place your supplements close to where you make your breakfast. Whenever you make breakfast, you see your supplements and remember to take them.

2. Goal: Go for a walk around the apartment block for at least 30 minutes

   Cue: Put your walking shoes near the door. Whenever you see your shoes, you remember you need to take a walk.

3. Goal: Eat one fruit everyday

   Cue: Place your fruits on the kitchen counter where they’re easily accessible.

4. Goal: Eat healthy, nutritious, home-cooked meals

   Cue: Stock up on more whole foods. Reduce the amount of junk food and sugary snacks available in the house.

5. Goal: Do at-home exercises at least three times a week

   Cue: Set aside a place in your house to workout. Keep your workout gear (yoga mat, workout clothes) visible and within reach.

6. Goal: Drink more water throughout the day

   Cue: Carry around a bottle of water. Take it a step further and get a calibrated one that shows you how much water you’ve consumed.

As you can see, you can literally come up with different cues that you can place in your environment that will prompt you to practice your healthy habits.

It’s such a simple thing to do, but having these subtle environmental cues can be incredibly powerful in helping you make better choices for your health.

A few things to remember…

1. Focus on one habit at a time to avoid feeling overwhelmed.

2. Make the cue for your desired action very obvious and hard to ignore.

3. Adjust cues as necessary. If a cue isn’t working, tweak it until you find something that does.

Thanks for reading! I hope you found something valuable :)

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