The Habit Escalator

It has often been said that success in life comes from developing the right habits.

For example, we all know that good health comes from developing the habits of eating well and exercising regularly. The BIG question is – "How do we develop these habits?"

Well, I have good news and bad news…

The bad news is that developing a new habit IS hard work!

The good news is that it is much easier to maintain a habit once you’ve established it. Here is how I like to think about developing new habits.

Imagine a staircase that has 30 stairs.

At the top of the stairs is an escalator that leads to your goal. The hard part of establishing a new habit is to climb the ’stairs of change’ so that you can then ride up the ‘habit escalator’.

What this means in the real world is that if you can make yourself do something every day for 30 days, it will become a habit, and once you’ve established a habit things become much easier.

For example, lets say you wanted to develop the habit of getting up at 6.00am to do some exercise…

The first morning your alarm goes off you will probably be tempted to throw your alarm clock against the wall. Think of this as climbing the ’steps of change’. If you commit yourself to taking action for 30 days in a row, you will find that things will get easier.

By the 30th day, you will probably find yourself waking up just before your alarm goes off. When this happens, you have reached the top of the stairs and completed the hard work necessary to establish a new habit. At this point, your habit takes over and your action becomes almost second nature. This is the ‘habit escalator’ which is one of the most effective ways to reach your goals.
Unfortunately most people give up while they are still climbing the ’stairs of change’ and never get to enjoy riding on the ‘habit escalator’.