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Do you ever wish you could create a good habit that you’d actually stick with?

You recognize the habit you need to make, you start off strong, but then somewhere along the way you completely abandoned it.

If so, then I have a solution for you!

You Can’t Possibly Remember Everything

One reason you may not be able to stick with the new habit is because you forget about it. You know you need to make a change, you’re motivated to create your new habit, but somewhere along the way it falls to the wayside.

It could be a lack of motivation. It could be that you don’t have a clear direction of where to go. Maybe it’s that the habit you’ve set for yourself is unrealistic or too complicated.

All of the above are reasons for not sticking with your change, but forgetting about it is at the top of the list too.

You Have A Lot Going On

You’re busy!

Not only are you a business owner that’s trying to grow your business, but you are a wife, mother, daughter, sister, & friend. You have responsibilities at work, around the house, & in the community. Perhaps you even say yes too much.

With all you’ve got going on, you have a lot on your mind & a lot you need to remember. When you’re trying to stay on track towards creating a new habit, it can be easy to forget about it among your day-to-day activities.

Let me give you an example of a good habit that I’m CONSTANTLY forgetting about.

I know that drinking water is soooo healthy for me. I want to get in the habit of drinking it throughout the day, but I always forget about it. I’m the worst when it comes to drinking anyway! Not just water, anything! I’m just not a very thirsty person, & I don’t think about drinking something until I’m eating. So even though I really, really want to develop this good habit in my life, I don’t because I have so many other things to think about throughout the day that I just forget about it.

What You Need Is A Reminder

You need something that will trigger your memory when you see, hear, or do it.

It’s called an action trigger, because whenever you come across your trigger, the lightbulb goes off in you head, & it triggers an action from you.

The key here is to plan ahead.

When I say “plan ahead”, I’m talking about looking over your day & finding things you do over & over during the day. If you want to get in the habit of doing something repeatedly throughout the day, then knowing what you already do repeatedly during the day is a great starting point.

You already have things that come second nature to you. You probably eat 3 times a day. You go to the bathroom several times a day. You check your email a few times a day. Maybe you’re like me & you have a newborn that you have to feed during the day.

How Action Triggers Will Change Your Behavior

What you need to do to get your new habit to become a permanant habit is to piggy-back it onto something else you already do… like feeding the baby.

Babies eat a lot during the day. If every time I fed the baby that triggered my memory about drinking a glass of water, then at the end of the day I should be doing really well with my water intake.

You see, feeding the baby becomes an action trigger. It reminds me to take action… to drink my water. It helps me not to have to remember it all on it’s own & eventually my good habit will be set & I won’t have to think about it anymore.

Let’s look at another example.

Let’s say you struggle with productivity & one of the things holding you back is checking your email too often. In order to decrease the amount of time you spend in your inbox, you need something to signal when it’s time to check it. If you decide that checking it 3 times a day is sufficient, then your action trigger could be meal times. You eat breakfast, you remember to check & respond to emails. Same goes for lunch & dinner. After a month or so of following your meal time action trigger, you’re more than likely be over your bad habit of constantly checking your email & into your good habit of only checking it 3 times a day.

In Conclusion

It takes 30 days to make an action become a habit. It’s easy to start off strong, but staying strong is the tricky part. No matter what habit you want to create in yourself, it helps to have something that reminds you of it during the day & action triggers can be your key to success!

What new habit do you want to create in your business or life this month? Share with me in the comments below & we’ll see if we can’t come up with an action trigger for you.