How to Build Lasting Habits Without Relying on Willpower
Relying solely on willpower to fuel your personal growth isn’t the surest path to success. To cultivate habits that truly endure, they need to operate independently of sheer self-discipline.
Here’s a little secret about willpower.
The individuals with the most self-discipline are those who require it the least.
They love chocolate chip cookies just as much as the rest of us but don’t find themselves battling temptation because there are no cookies in their pantry. Their success stems from increasing friction between themselves and undesirable behaviors while reducing friction for desired actions.
What does this mean for you? It means abandoning the notion that a stronger will alone will bring about the changes you seek. If initiating a new habit demands significant willpower, it suggests:
- You don’t enjoy the behavior; it’s a chore rather than a desire.
- The behavior is too hard or time-consuming.
- The environment or circumstances don’t support the change.
Instead of relying solely on willpower, the key lies in manipulating friction to establish habits that stick. Here are three tips to manipulate friction and help you adhere to habits and routines without constantly relying on willpower:
Tip #1: Make it easy
To effectively establish new habits, ensure the behavior is effortless to execute—so simple you could manage it even with a hangover. Starting a new habit becomes significantly easier when the effort required is minimal. Ever notice how motivation tends to kick in once you’ve begun? This underscores the importance of making initiation easy, as motivation often follows action, not precedes it.
Design your habit for your worst day, not your best.
For instance, instead of aiming for fifty push-ups daily, opt for two every time you visit the bathroom.
Once you’ve devised an easy version of the habit, focus on mastering the art of showing up. This becomes much simpler when the habit doesn’t require herculean willpower to commence. Over time, the behavior becomes truly habitual, requiring no willpower to initiate—this is when you can expand.
For undesirable habits, reverse the principle—make them harder.
For example, rather than driving past the supermarket where you always succumb to buying chocolate, take an alternate route home.
Tip #2: Curate your environment
Besides simplifying new habits, shaping your environment to bias the desired behavior is your best strategy. Place your new habits in environments that encourage the behavior while minimizing distractions. When the environment provides abundant cues for the new habit, willpower becomes less necessary.
For instance, if you want to use your kettlebell, store it in the kitchen, where you’ll see it each time you brew coffee, rather than tucked away in the garage.
Conversely, to resist the allure of cookies, eliminate context cues from your surroundings—no cookies in the pantry. Consider taking it a step further by doing your grocery shopping online, avoiding the aisles of temptation altogether.
Tip #3: Do it in the morning
While willpower isn’t the most reliable motivator, it still holds value as a resource. However, like any resource, it depletes with usage.
One highly effective tactic is to tackle new habits early in the day when your willpower is at its peak. This is especially beneficial for challenging habits, like hitting the gym.
Think of willpower like a battery—fully charged in the morning but gradually depleting with each decision, whether momentous or mundane. If you’ve struggled to hit the gym after work, you might find more success in the morning, when your battery is full.
Ultimately, designing new habits to be effortless is the most effective approach. Your willpower is finite, used as a fuel source by various cognitive functions. By simplifying our habits, we reduce the drain on our willpower—similar to activating battery saver mode on your computer.
Keep your habits simple, reserving your willpower for when it’s truly needed.
“Intensity makes a good story, but consistency yields results.”
– James Clear.