Startups with Niall Maher

In this episode, I share the different steps that will help you turn your goal of creating a habit into reality. It's not easy, but it is doable! And with some of the research, I found it might even become intuitive.

Show Notes

Do you want to create good habits?

In this episode, I share the different steps that will help you turn your goal of creating a habit into reality. It's not easy, but it is doable! And with some of the research, I found it might even become intuitive.
Maybe not just an episode for founders (even though habits are what build our businesses). whether you're trying to get fit, be more productive, or just be a better person altogether, these tips will help!
Supercharge your life.

What is Startups with Niall Maher?

Welcome to Startups with Niall Maher.

This show is to going give you tips, strategies and advice to grow your business and hopefully entertain you along the way.

Niall will introduce experts and resources that he is always learning from.

It’s all about sharing that experience with YOU.

Niall has worked in nearly every corner of technology businesses; Lead Developer, Software Architect, Product Manager, CTO and now happily a Founder.

You’ll also get to hear live calls with special guests (such as founders, authors and experts).

Thanks for listening and let’s grow together.

Niall: This is the first shorter
style episode where it's just me

rambling on by myself for a while,
but I wanted to cover something that

a lot of people ask me about because
I have so many awesome habits.

I know.

I'm joking.

I have so many terrible habits.

But I do take the things
I do very seriously.

Rather than try and explain what's
going on in my head, because that

would probably get me arrested.

I am going to share with you some of the
tips and tricks that I have found from

researchers and authors on the topic
of creating and keeping great habits.

So let's just jump in.

You can't go anywhere on the
internet without being told the

best way to do pretty much anything.

And a lot of the advice out there
can be useful, but usually we don't

do anything other than bookmark
and article and say, oh, cool.

I'll do that, but then the next
article pops up and you forget all

about that enlightening article.

But wouldn't it be great if we
actually took some of that useful

knowledge and applied it to our lives?

I read mostly non-fiction.

Although I do pick up the odd
star wars, graphic novel, and

over the past few years, I have
been reading more books than ever.

But what I realized I was
doing was just consuming.

Like when you throw the TV on,
in the background and after 30

minutes you realize you don't
really have a clue what's happened.

And you just click.

Yes.

I've been watching on Netflix.

But a lot of people's books are their
lives, work and knowledge compressed

into 200 or 300 pages of paper.

It's usually dense with knowledge
and things that we can learn from.

And start putting into our lives.

So it got me thinking.

Well, actually it got me Googling.

I started searching on the
internet to try and figure out.

How we form habits or what is stopping me
from taking some of these nuggets of gold?

And applying it to my life.

On this little journey, I found
a cool little paper on habits.

Maybe cool.

Isn't the right word,
but it's interesting.

At least.

And according to the authors of
the paper from Duke university.

Which I will add a link
to in the show notes.

The research shows that we
run on our daily habits.

About 45% of the time.

So that's nearly half the time.

That we are just working in habit mode.

And what does that mean?

Ha mode?

Well, think of making a coffee in
the morning, brushing our teeth.

Sitting down just doing the
stuff we do every single day.

Yeah, we all think of this freewill
and stuff, but it turns out most of

the time we spent just in habit mode.

And pushing through with
things we do everyday.

Anyway.

Since we spend half our time doing these
daily habits, wouldn't it be great if we

could get some really great habits pushed
into that part of our brain as well.

But how do we outsmart ourselves
and create great habits?

There is a very unhelpful urban rumor
out there, which I've quoted to people

in the past and didn't realize it was
fake until I went down this rabbit hole.

But it is that it takes
21 days to create a habit.

And unfortunately it's just not true.

Habits our habits because they span
further down a small window of time.

So, what do the experts think?

How did they create good habits?

Well, bJ Fogg, who is an academic
and runs a company called tiny habits.

He reckons, you need to make
sure your new habit can be

completed in 60 seconds or less.

And you might think that's silly.

But it's about getting started.

I'm sure.

You've heard the saying that
putting on your trainers is the

hardest part of going to gym.

Because then you're committed.

The 60 second rule is
basically the equivalent.

I sit in the morning after I make my
coffee and I aim to read one paragraph

of a book every day, because it's
something I could do in 60 seconds.

And guess what?.

I then keep on reading.

But if I'm having a bad day, I read
a paragraph which takes about 30

seconds and then continue with my day
without feeling bad about messing up.

So for you, if you want to create a
new habit of something like meditation,

for instance, you might say, I will
sit to meditate for 60 seconds a day.

The rest will get easier from there.

Charles Duhigg in the power of habits.

Recommends that rather than just
thinking about the new habit.

Try to think of the trigger
that sets off the old behavior.

When you're conscious of the
trigger that causes the old bad

behavior that we don't want.

We can become mindful of.

If we are slipping away from
the habits we want to have.

In our new selves and not back
into the old version of ourselves.

Back to the instance of me reading
a paragraph in the morning, my old

routine was to grab a coffee and
go to my desk and start working

through some of my study or work.

But instead.

I take a moment.

I grabbed my coffee, I sit a table
and I start reading the book.

I realized that if I didn't break
that chain of going directly from

the coffee machine, Into my desk.

I might never actually take up the habit.

James clear the author of the book, atomic
habits talks about how we often fail

when we have too many good intentions.

We've all done it.

January 1st swings around and we
are going to get fit, meditate,

talk to our family more on.

So on.

But then we don't actually fit it into
our lives because we don't know where

they fit and then they all rather
quickly become next year's plan.

This is to do with actually picking
the time and place to do these things.

Like we kind of touched on area,
but James linked a study that

said when people filled out a
sentence and I'm air quoting here.

During the next week, I will
partake in at least 20 minutes

of vigorous exercise on day.

At the time of day.

At the place.

We're two to three times more likely
to actually exercise compared to

those who did not make a plan for
a new behavior and just winged it.

Like most of us do.

So this is all about intention and
has been used in a range of areas

from beginning to recycle, stick with
studying and even stopped smoking.

But more importantly in a follow-up
study, implementation intentions only work

when you focus on one thing at a time.

In fact researchers found that
people who try to accomplish multiple

goals at once were less committed
and less likely to succeed than

those who focused on a single goal.

Which makes sense.

Because when you do one thing, it's easy.

Or at least a lot more easily
to think about doing when

it's only a single hurdle.

Because when you begin practicing a new
habit, it requires a lot of conscious

effort for you to remember, to even do it.

And after a while, however,
the pattern becomes easier.

Eventually your new habit becomes
a normal routine and the process is

more or less mindless and automatic.

Researchers have a fancy term for
this process called automaticity.

I hope I said that.

Right.

Just remember there is a tipping
point at which the new habits

become more or less automatic.

The time it takes to build a habit,
depends on many factors, including

how difficult a habit it is for one,
what your environment is like your

genetics and loads of other stuff.

James even cited a study that actually
said on average to habit takes about 66

days to be become automatic, but then
quickly tells us not to read into that

number because of the range in the study.

It was very wide.

And the only reasonable conclusion you
could make is that it will take months

for a new habit to become sticky.

Now that shouldn't put you off doing
it, but it means go easy on yourself.

Take your time.

Be patient.

These habits will take time.

But they will be worth it.

Remember, you're trying
to build the new you.

On take-up some great new
habits in this 45% of the time

that we're in automatic mode.

So why are some of us more
motivated to succeed than others?

Let's jump back to our
childhoods for a minute.

And see if it can give us
a clue, not don't worry.

I'm not going to diagnose
all your childhood issues.

I just have a really cool story here.

And this is a nice little story I found on
a YouTube channel called improvement pill.

So please check that out as well.

Claudia Mueller and Carol
Dweck researchers at Columbia

university conducted six
studies of 412 fifth graders.

In these studies, the children
were given an exam with several

different problems to solve.

On all of the children were told
at the end of the exam, but it

did really well on a test, no
matter how well they actually did.

Some of them were given statements.

Like you must be really smart
to solve these problems.

While others were told you
must have worked really hard

to solve these problems.

After this, the children were
allowed to choose a task.

And those told that they were intelligent
tended to choose assignments that they

knew they could do well on while the
second group chose harder tasks that they

taught, they might learn something from.

So the children who were told
they were smart, actually showed

lower levels of motivation.

And when asked if they enjoyed,
it said, no, it wasn't fun.

But the kids who apparently worked harder

now remember they didn't
actually work harder.

Originally spent more time
solving problems on attempted

more difficult puzzles.

They also said they
had fun while doing it.

This comes down to a concept which
is called your locus of control.

Your locus of control is the
degree of, to which you believe

you have control over your life.

The kids who were told they
were smart, believed they had an

external locus of control and they
believed that things outside of our

control is what made them do well.

We know we don't have any
control over us being born smart.

So they just assumed you're
either smart or you're not.

The kids who are told, they worked hard,
believed in an internal locus of control.

It was their hard work and
effort to control their outcomes.

Because we can control the
amount of work we can do.

So, where am I going with all
this study after study shows that

having an internal locus of control
is the key to staying motivated.

Knowing and remembering that your
actions can and will impact your life.

Are the things that will keep you going
when things get hired or you've had a

bad day or even missed a couple of days.

So when we blame the weather the weekend
or things outside of your control for

your habit, failing, remember that you
are using your external locus of control.

And when we look through this lens, it's
very easy to say, why bother trying.

. So to change into having an
internal locus of control.

Congratulate yourself on
the small wins in your life.

When you take up a new habit, remember
it was you and only you that did it

every day or however many times a week.

You said you would do it.

And congratulate yourself.

BJ fog of tiny habits even
recommends having a personal

success ritual to further this.

So maybe every time you do your habit, you
can just fist bump the air in celebration.

I know it sounds silly, but it
could really push you into having

that internal locus of control.

If you are struggling.

So to summarize, we run on our
daily habits, 45% of the time.

So it's probably worth getting
some really good habits pushed

into that part of our brain.

Try and keep your habits to something
you can achieve in 60 seconds or less.

Remember what triggers your old
behavior so you have something

to trigger your new behavior.

Try only take up one habit at a time.

For maximum chance of success and
to stay motivated, remember that

you are in control of your outcomes.

If you want more content, don't forget
that I have a newsletter that you can

sign up to that is delivered every
Sunday morning on my website at niall.af.

And you can connect with
me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

My DMS are always open.

So if you have any suggestions or
comments or anything at all, eh

just grab me on one of those places.

If you enjoyed this episode,
I have a little favorite ask.

If you could leave the podcast a kind
review, it would really help the show out.

It appeases the algorithm gods
and helps me reach new people.

So I really appreciate it.

And until next time, my beautiful friends.

Keep learning and keep growing.