1: Think about a negative habit.
Typically, something triggers it.
“Stress triggers overeating or gambling, waking up might trigger smoking, or boredom might trigger wasting time online,” Tynan writes in Superhuman by Habit.
You can use this insight to power new, positive habits as well.
“Why not use such a powerful reality of the human experience to your benefit?” Tynan asks.
For example, you wake up every day. You eat lunch. You arrive home at the end of the workday.
There are also situational triggers, such as opening your laptop, receiving bad news, waiting in line, or getting on a train.
In other words, you can use any of these occurrences to trigger a new action or behavior.
“Meditating once in a while when it strikes your fancy is an inconsistent hobby,” Tynan writes. “Meditating every single day when you wake up is a habit.”
When you begin a new habit, start by thinking about what event or action you can tie it to.
Then, commit to doing the new habit every time the trigger occurs.
“Don’t say that you will drink tea every morning, because you probably won’t,” he observes. “Say that every day, as soon as you wake up, you will drink tea.
“You can even write ‘First, drink tea’ on a post-it note and put it on your alarm clock to ensure consistency as you build the trigger.”
2: You can compound the impact by substituting a positive habit for a negative one.
“If you have the habit of browsing gossip sites whenever you turn on your computer,” Tynan explains, “and you retrain yourself to respond to open emails as soon as you turn on the computer, you both gain a new good habit and lose an old bad one.”
Seeking out the triggers for negative habits may be a bit more difficult. It may require an honest, introspective look at what prompts specific behaviors.
Tynan provides an example: “If you realize that you overeat as a way of coping with stress, you’d want to find a more productive way of dealing with that stress to replace the old one.
“So you might tell yourself, ‘Okay, whenever I feel stressed, or feel like I’m about to be stressed, I’m going to drink a cup of green tea, write out what’s worrying me the most, and then take one small step towards resolving it.'”
There’s power in thinking through and writing down the specific plan you will follow.
“There’s a big difference,” he notes, “between doing that and thinking, ‘Okay, I shouldn’t overeat when I’m stressed.’
“One is replacing a trigger with a healthier one, and the other is just the acknowledgment of a problem without offering yourself a tangible solution.”
3: Getting better at getting better is what RiseWithDrew is all about. Monday through Thursday, we explore ideas from authors, thought leaders, and exemplary organizations.
At the end of each week, we’re exploring the ideas from Tynan’s book Superhuman by Habit. We’re beginning with several weeks on the mechanics of building habits. What I like most about this book, however, are his suggestions for specific habits, which we will eventually cover.
Finding the trigger isn’t always easy. But as Tynan explains, from this soup of unknown habits and triggers, you can rewire how you show up in life one habit at a time.
“Because you’re using existing triggers and are designing manageable habits,” Tynan explains, “this huge improvement can be made with relatively little ongoing effort and drain on willpower.”
The big takeaway? “You’re not adding more triggers to your day, you’re just changing the actions they spur,” he writes.
More next week!
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Reflection: What event or routine in your day could become the trigger for one positive habit you’ve been wanting to build?
Action: Choose one existing daily trigger—such as waking up, finishing lunch, or arriving home—and attach one small positive habit to it for the next seven days.