Use A Nudge To Break Out Of Routine Actions

Habits and routines make our lives much easier, but sometimes we need a nudge to help us out of routine behaviour that we’ve stopped thinking about.

I’m a creature of habit.

I’ve said that a lot in my blogs, and it’s probably true that most people are.

In fact, habits are what make life work a lot more easily…

Imagine having to remember or decide to breathe, or wake up in the mornings or go to get the newspaper.

That’s why good habits are so much more powerful than motivation, because once you have a good habit you’ll do things instinctively…

Click here to watch a video I shot on this sometime ago…

As with all things, habits can cut both ways.

While a good habit can push us into a virtuous cycle, a bad habit can very quickly turn into a vicious cycle.

The human reliance on our subconscious mind makes day to day living manageable. Like many in my generation, we were taught not to waste food and to finish what was on our plate. That’s a great virtue, and while the debate is out on whether or not that’s the best thing for our kids, that’s what continues to be taught in this household.

Anyway, I digress.

The point is that once that becomes a habit, we finish what’s on our plate without any evaluation of our state of hunger. Bigger portions mean we’ll eat more, even if we don’t like what we’re being served.

Researchers sent test subjects to the movies with stale popcorn. Half were given small portions the other half large. While all the subjects disliked the popcorn, the amount they ate was a direct reflection of the amount they were given!

Richard H. Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein, winner of the 2017 Nobel Prize In Economics, in their book Nudge, suggest that these habits can be easily changed by little nudges, such as putting healthy food in easier to reach places.

When I first left my 20 year corporate lawyer’s career and started an online business, I needed to develop a lot of new skills.

The way I made sure I put these skills into practice was by turning them into habits…

In the training program I was in, we are taught that if we do anything consistently for 90 days it becomes a habit. And having good habits lead to great successes, allowing me to fully replace my lawyer’s income in 6 months.

There were nudges that were involved in getting me to that point. The first big nudge was to break out of the habit and comfort of being in my legal career. While I was certainly comfortable, there were things in my life I wanted to change. I wanted more time with my family, and more time to serve in church and my community.

If I didn’t address the problem and make the change there would never be more time. After the big nudge, came little nudges. First I had to learn a new skill, and get good at it. Then I had to use nudges to turn those into habits, and execute a business blueprint.

Whatever reason you may have to change your life, I’m here to give you a nudge…

You won’t change your life by doing the same thing. No matter how comfortable it seems.

That said, you can make the change more easily by having someone who’s done this before show you exactly how it’s done.