3 Ways to Make Habits Stick

Have you ever reached the end of the year wondering why you could not reach some of your goals? Me too. That is why I am committed to making this year the most productive year of my life. And you can too. Join me as we learn the tools needed to make habits stick and crush our goals every time. This simple, three step process has made all the difference in my life.

Without structure or a framework, it will be easier to give up and give in to distractions. We cannot haphazardly throw our goals in the air and see what sticks.

So how do we make habits stick?

We schedule time to do these three things: reflect, plan and connect.

1. Reflect

In order to reach our goals, we need to take time to think. Take time to focus on our thoughts, desires, passions and identify what we want to accomplish. Reflection brings new ideas, purpose and buried dreams to the surface and helps weed out distractions.

• Reflection can include prayer & meditation. Spending time alone with God has made all the difference in my life and business.  
• Reflection could include journaling our day, looking back on where we spend our time and seeing if what we did brought us closer to our goals.

2. Plan

After reflecting on how we spend our time and getting direction, we need to plan a course of action that gets us closer to achieving our goal. If we spent all day yesterday reading books (guilty as charged), hopefully today, we will take action on what we learned.

When I think of the goal achieving process and making habits stick, I think of gaps. There could be a learning gap, a resource gap, a skill or growth gap. We fill the gaps by planning time in our schedule to do tasks that move us closer to our goals.

• Plan according to energy levels and learning gaps. Adding new tasks and routines to our schedule requires more energy and time. A good rule of thumb is to remove two commitments for every new one.
• Plan for down time in our schedule and reward ourselves when we reach a goal. This helps to prevent burnout and encourages self-care.

3. Connect

Connecting to resources is crucial in making habits stick. Resources are the bridge we need to achieve our goals. The bridge represents our external walk, a pathway that crosses over barriers to a future destination.

• Resources could include learning new skills by taking a class or reading a book. Use the knowledge learned to break down your goal into tiny achievable steps.
• People are valuable resources. Participating in networking events or joining online groups geared to your profession (life coaching) or the personal results you want (organizing tips), will give you support as you navigate through the process to successfully achieve your goals.

Let’s reflect to see what is working and change what is not working, plan for learning gaps and our next steps and connect to resources that will get us quickly to our goals.

I am a certified life coach and organizational specialist and founder of Mirrors and Bridges – The Transformation Company. We transform your mental and physical spaces. We study your life or business and remove blocks that are keeping you from achieving your goals. We create systems to help you work more productively and effectively. We provide success tools and services that save time and money so that you can reflect, plan and connect to a better life.

If your life feels out of order, or if you don’t see the results you were hoping for, reach out to our company. We have different classes, resources and one on one coaching programs that can support your growth over the next year. Please check out our store or services to see which tools work best for your life and schedule a call today.

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I would love to know which tips you are interested in trying or have tried in the past to connect to your goals and make habits stick. Please let me know in the comment below.

Photo credits: Emma Matthews on Unsplash