I wonder if right now you have any habits that you are trying to solidify in your life? But something always slips, and you can’t get that habit going?
My client — a sophomore in high school — had a habit he just couldn’t shift. We spent some time in our session answering the question, “Where is your weakest link?” Listen in as I describe our coaching conversation, and we discovered how powerful that question can be.
Don’t have time for the full video? No worries, here’s a short summary:
So as I was saying, I have a client who is a sophomore in high school, and he just couldn’t, for the life of him, do his setup routine. And for those who don’t know, a setup routine is the idea of coming home from school, going straight to your study space, getting it set up with your homework, and then taking a break. However, he found himself taking a break when he first got home, then doing the setup routine, then take another break. So in our session last week we looked at this very important question I’m going to ask you about your habit as well, “Where is your weak link?”
A habit is a series of actions that we link together. For example, the setup routine involves linking the action of walking in the front door to the action of walking to your study area, to the action of opening your backpack, and so on. And so what we are looking for, is where is your weak link in this chain of events that make up the habit? For my client, we found that his weak link was that he would just put his backpack on his desk instead of opening it and that single step, once he focused on it, allowed him to complete the setup routine with much better success. He reported this week, that not only is he completing the setup routine, he’s getting his homework done ahead of time thanks to it.
So, the key here is finding your weak link in order to forge a stronger habit that you’ll actually follow through with. And if you want more tips and tricks for how to develop and follow through on new habits, or need help in other academic areas, please consider checking out my online course, The Anti-Boring Approach to Powerful Studying™.