5 Ways to Form Good Habits

Did you know around 70% of your life is lived through habitual patterns? That’s huge. It means most of what you do daily isn’t conscious, it’s automatic (subconscious). If your habits are working for you, that’s brilliant. But if they’re not, you’ll feel stuck on autopilot. That’s why understanding these 5 ways to form good habits is a must.

The most common theory out there is it takes “21 days” to form a new habit. But research published in the European Journal of Social Psychology found it can take 18 to 254 days to form a habit, depending on your stress, sleep, environment, and mindset. So if you’ve "failed" to keep a good habit before, give yourself some grace. You probably just didn’t have the right system.

These 5 points will open something up for you that you may have missed before:

1. Connect to the Big Picture

Your habits need to serve your bigger vision, have meaning in your life as a whole, or they’ll fizzle out. Shifts happen when you get really clear on: Who do I really want to be? What's the life I want to live? What's the work I want to do? What's meaningful to pursue? Suddenly, integrating better habits seems less of a chore and more a foundation for achieving a better life, the life you want.

2. Visualise the Process, Not Just the Outcome

We all love picturing the end result whether that's the fit body, house by the beach or being your own boss. But the real trick is to visualise the full journey: the prep, the effort, the friction, and the reward at the end. So if you want to start going to the gym in the mornings, spend a moment and visualise yourself laying out your clothes the night before, putting on your gym gear that morning, making your way to the gym, the workout itself and the reward you'll feel afterwards. This visualisation should take 1 minute tops the night before. Now your brain and body are primed ready to get into action for the real event.

3. Keep it Simple!

Overcomplicating is the death of new habits. If you want to journal, keep the notebook on your bedside. If you want to walk at sunrise, have your gear ready the night before. If you want a new career, block time on your calendar and specifically list out the 1st step to take. This is about keeping environment as friction-free as possible.

4. Build Conscious Check-ins

Here’s the scary bit: 95% of your day is run by your subconscious. If you’re not stopping to check in, you’re running on autopilot. Weave little pauses into your day, between calls, on walks, even while eating. I'm talking a few minutes, even that can make all the difference to your day, we're all a super busy generation but come on, a few minutes out of the 16/17 hours you're awake. Take little pauses just to understand your energy levels and take action if you need. I take a maximum of 4-5 coaching calls a day but I'll be checking in with myself throughout to check whether I need to sit, headphones on, close eyes, breathe and reset for 10 minutes or keep working. If I don't, it's all building up to a potential scatty evening with my family. That's not who I want to be (point 1 above).

5. Celebrate Small Wins Along the Way

Every time you follow through on a habit, no matter how tiny, you need to celebrate it. A split second acknowledgement will do. Nothing big. Why? Because celebration reinforces the loop with dopamine. And watch for external validation cravings. Internal recognition is more powerful. Practice that instead, it's way more sustainable over the long term.

Bonus Tip: Find Your Ways to Form Good Habits

Can't express this one enough. Failure is part of the process to successfully forming a new habit. It's messy. Some habits for me are permanent, like quitting alcohol, that's black and white. But others like, exercising everyday, that's not, if my body is saying no, I'll rest and enjoy it without guilt. As long as you're living from a place of your truth I say. Only you know what that is. Not some guru on instagram. That's the most empowering.

Habit formation forms part of the program my clients work through, and it's not about throwing pre-packaged formulas at them, it's about psychology, purpose, education, meaningful goals, life's vision, who they want to be, their identity and how they want to feel. There's a lot to it, it's not just hacks. But we make it simple for you. If you're curious to see what such a holistic program would look like for you, just click the button below.