Did you know there’s a science behind installing habits?

The Habit Installation Protocol

Remember that genius is not about natural talent and genetics. Rather, it’s about your rituals, your habits and routines. I’ve outlined this several times in past blogs, and this is probably the most important thing to rewire in your brain, especially because many were taught the opposite while growing up. This is the one thing I wish all schools would actually focus on when teaching our kids. Can you imagine? But then, this kind of change has to start with the leaders, those who are molding young minds.

So here we go with the nitty gritty, deconstructing the habit installation protocol. Did you know there’s actually a science behind installing habits? One finding concerns the 66-day protocol, because it takes 66 days of practice to hardwire your brain with a new habit so it becomes automatic. This is why so many don’t gain traction, because they give in and give up when it gets too hard. Remember that every new habit, skill, or idea you’re trying to learn is hard in the beginning, messy in the middle, and beautiful in the end. You need only grit and determination to start that new habit and push through the inner critic that tells you to give up and go back to being mediocre, to lying on that sofa and vegging out, to sleeping the day away, to staying in that dead-end job, to giving up that weight-loss routine because you tell yourself it’s easier and that bag of potato chips is going to fix everything. I’m here to tell you, don’t listen to that inner critic and that frustration that has you wanting to throw your hands in the air and go back to how it’s always been. Stick with it for 66 days, because then your new habit will be hardwired into your routine.

So what are the three stages of habit installation?

1.  The first one, which happens over the first 20 days, is destruction. Here is your starting point. Pick a new habit you want to wire in, and remember, if it wasn’t difficult, it wouldn’t be real change. After 66 days, it will be easier to do the new thing, the new ritual, than it will be not to. What you’re doing is recoding the emotional pathways of your brain. You’re reinventing your way of being you, a better you, a happier you. It’s destruction. The whole process of getting to your best self is like a series of deaths. Ask yourself this: When you were going through a dramatic change in your life, did it feel like death? The old part of you is dying—the death of your limitation, of your old way of thinking, of your old way of settling for mediocrity, of that depressing feeling and victim mentality of “This is as good as it gets.” This feeling that happens when you take on a new habit and step into that change, which feels like the death of the old you, is actually a really good thing. It will not be easy, but let me tell you, it is so worth it in the end.

2.  The next 20 days is confusion. Most out there, if they haven’t already quit and given up in the first 20 days because it was so hard, do it now. It’s so messy in the middle, and society often says that if you’re confused, something is wrong, but in real change, if you’re confused, you’re growing. Chaos is nothing more than your next level of world class and your A game coming to get you. Keep going and push through it. Embrace the messiness, for there your expansion lives. Now, with that awareness, you will make better choices. With better choices, you will have better results. How can you renovate a house without it being really messy? When you’re dismantling the old foundation and structures, there will be mess, confusion, chaos, maybe a lot of F bombs dropped, but what do you get in the end, when you keep on going? You all know this. The same thing applies to you.

3.  The next 20 days is integration. You’re now integrating the new rhythms and recoding your brain, and that’s why it now doesn’t seem like such a frickin’ struggle. New brain cells and neuropathways that fire together are wired together. It’s all being integrated together in you. It’s now getting easier. You have now reached the point where the new habit becomes automatic. That’s the way it works. It becomes easier at this point to do the new routine than to not do it. Everyone has the grit, the capability, to wire in a new habit. I don’t care what anyone tells you; everyone can do it. The problem is that society has taught us it’s okay to give up, or maybe you have family and friends who aren’t supportive and are of the opinion that there was nothing wrong with the way you were just getting by. They remind you that it’s life, and life is hard. Remember, surround yourself with likeminded people who are going where you’re going, and disregard the naysayers. Here’s another way to look at it: willpower! You need only willpower to start that new habit and stick with it until it becomes automatic, and then your willpower will be freed up for the next habit you want to install. This is the secret to all those A players and game changers in the world. Easy? Actually, it is, once you know what to do.

Someone was telling me just last week about a Hawaiian team of outriggers. (Outrigging is an endurance sport, for those not familiar with it.) This team are built like refrigerators, but the entire team works with well-timed precision—their reach, their stroke changes, their calls, their wave riding, their seat changes. It all looks like a choreographed ballet. But for that team to get to that level of greatness, they worked at it a hundred times, a thousand times, honing their precision, working through the routine until it became automatic. That kind of precision and greatness doesn’t come from “Oh, it’s too hard. I’ll just give up and go back to how I’ve always done it” or “Slow down! You’re going too fast!” No, they worked at it, just like you can, like we all can, and remember, there is no reason not to go after the change you want in your life.