For a better chance of success, try these three steps:

• 1. SHRINK IT DOWN!

Those who find the most success adopting new habits usually shrink their actions down to small, doable steps that they can successfully achieve each day.

Why?

We need to feel successful in order to keep something up.

When the action steps are small and easy to do each day, it gets easier and easier to string a chain of them together over the course of a week or a month. As we succeed in stringing more and more days together, we start to feel better about our chances. We start to see that we can succeed in changing. The narrative in our head shifts and it opens the door to make bigger changes down the road.

For example, if the goal is to eat healthier, many people will try to overhaul all of their meals and snacks at once, which can really be daunting. Or they’ll try a restrictive diet.

They might start strong, but then life happens, they fall off the wagon and then give up because it’s just too hard. They can’t see themselves succeeding. They fall back on their old habits.

Instead, imagine focusing on just one meal that you control (often breakfast or lunch, where you aren’t also trying to feed your family). Pick one small thing that would level it up, such as picking one healthy breakfast that you enjoy and deciding to eat that every day. Or add a serving of carrot/celery sticks to your lunch each day. Or swap out one snack for something healthier.

Start small. Get some success and build from there.

• 2. MAKE IT SPECIFIC

In the example above, the action steps are really clear. This is important because then there is no daily decision to be made. No question about “How will I eat healthy today?”

Instead, it’s clear that you’ll have carrots and celery with lunch. Or you’ll eat 2 eggs and some fruit for breakfast.

Make your small steps very specific – PLAN – so you know exactly what you will do each day.

• 3. LINK IT TO SOMETHING ELSE

To further increase your chance of success, tie your small daily habit to something you already do each day.

FOR EXAMPLE:

“After I get out of bed, I will take 2 minutes to jot down my goals for the day, before I go downstairs.”

“I will take 5 minutes to focus on my breathing during my morning coffee break on my workdays.”

You can see how both of these examples are tied to something else. The trigger of getting up, or going on break, is what prompts the action step.

There’s a lot more to adopting new habits, but think about how these three strategies could help you change something in your life.

Most of us have something that has been tricky for us to change, whether it’s around our health, our homes (decluttering anyone?), our eating, etc.

What might you be able to change by shrinking your action steps down, getting specific, and tying your actions to something else?

-Shelley Turk (owner of ProActive Fitness/Functional Aging Specialist