How I Unknowingly Set Off a Chain Reaction of Habits — Photo by Sandra Marilyne from Pexels

I pulled all the stops. Nothing could hold me back. The desire to succeed consumed me with an intensity I hadn’t felt before.

What I didn’t expect was its effect on other areas of my life. When I set out to achieve a personal best time in my half marathon, I unknowingly set off a chain reaction of habits.

What I discovered is that life is a succession of habits. Many of the activities and routines that make up our daily lives are related to one another. Choices in one area of life can lead to surprising results in other areas.

As Stanford professor, BJ Fogg said- You can never change just one behaviour. Our behaviours are interconnected, so when you change one behaviour, other behaviours also shift.

This effect is called the domino effect.

The Domino Effect states that when you make a change to one behavior it will activate a chain reaction and cause a shift in related behaviors as well.

The Domino Effect holds for both negative and positive habits. You may find that the habit of binge-watching tv leads to staying up late which leads to poor sleep which leads to excessive consumption of caffeine.

But, you may notice that your habit of working out leads to more mindful eating and increased water intake which helps you sustain a healthier lifestyle. These happen even though you never made a plan to specifically improve either behaviour.

Let’s Examine the Chain Reaction of Habits I Unknowingly Set-Off

Creating In My Mind First

I’ve been a runner for 20+ years. Going into the training my PB time was 2hrs 35min. My target time was 2hrs 18 mins, which is 17 mins faster.

If you are a runner you know how difficult it is to shave seconds, let alone minutes, off your personal best time. Beyond the training in the field, I knew I needed to use my mind for this goal to come true.

So I turned to top athletes to find out what gives them the edge. One common factor was visualization.

Visualization is the practice of imagining what you want to achieve in the future. As if it were true today. It involves using all five senses of sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing. Visualizing directs your subconscious to be aware of the end goal you have in mind.

Visualization trains your brain to respond as if that outcome were true in the present moment.

As Jack Nicklaus put it:

“I never hit a shot, even in practice, without having a very sharp, in-focus picture of it in my head. It’s like a color movie.”

How You Can Apply It:

Start with a clear idea of what you want and why. You can achieve this by understanding what you value and what brings you the most joy in life. Think back to the moment when you were doing something and felt joyful doing it.

If you had nothing holding you back, what would you want to see in your life? Now close your eyes and see it in your mind. Or if you prefer you can write it all down. Feel the emotions you would feel as if this “life” was your reality now.

Identify all the steps needed to achieve your goal. Add each of these steps to your visualization exercise. Picture the start, the middle and the end in as much detail as you can. An important tip is to imagine yourself facing challenges and overcoming them.

It’s time for action now. Each day identify one thing you could do that will help you get closer to the life you want.

What you want to create won’t happen in one day but will eventuate in a series of actions. Don’t focus on how far you are. Keep your eyes on the present. Set yourself daily or weekly goals to get to where you want.

Visualize daily. Consistency convinces your brain that what you visualize is the truth. The more you visualize something, the stronger that vision becomes. And the higher the likelihood that you’ll get what you want. Why? Because you’ve done it already.

Let go of specific outcomes. Allow yourself to enjoy the process, not the results. Approach your visualization with a curious and open mind.

Find a Coach To Shorten Your Learning Curve

I was certain I would need guidance and support to achieve my goal. The risk of overuse injuries, workout plateaus and burnout were high.

I have worked with a running coach before and benefited greatly from it. This time was no different.

I followed the steps and directions from my coach without questioning anything. I embraced a beginner’s mind and let go of my perceived competence. I humbled myself to learn from someone who had what I wanted.

How You Can Apply It:

It’s easy to fall into a rut, doing the same tasks over and over. This isn’t just boring; it can also lead to mistakes, loss of time and frustration.

No matter your abilities, working with a coach can take your performance to the next level. A coach brings an objective eye. They see areas of your workflow that could be adjusted to increase your productivity.

As long as you remain a student of your craft, you’ll keep growing no matter what.

Sharing My Goal With Others

At the start of the twelve-week training, motivation was at an all-time high. But, I knew it wouldn't last. Fatigue, time requirement and doubt would creep in and slow me down.

The solution was in seeking accountability. While I told my goal to family and friends, it was the opinion of my coach and teammates I valued most. The individuals I was in the trenches with.

Research from The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business has proven that people tend to be more committed to their goals after they share them with someone who they see as “higher status,” or whose opinions they respect.

How You Can Apply It:

Share your goals, but be careful whom you tell. It’s important to share them with a person with higher status or whose opinions you respect.

Howard Klein, the lead author of the study and professor of management and human resources at The Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business, explains in the study:

“If you don’t care about the opinion of whom you tell, it doesn’t affect your desire to persist — which is really what goal commitment is all about. You want to be dedicated and unwilling to give up on your goal, which is more likely when you share that goal with someone you look up to.”

Dumping My Thoughts

The marathon training program ran for 12 weeks. Scheduled for week 6 was the time trial run; a 10k race done at your best speed.

Despite this being my fourth time trial, I had a lot of anxiety going into it. I found myself riddled with doubts about my performance. I feared I might not achieve my target.

This anxiety affected my sleep, training and work output.

I am aware that worrying serves a purpose. It draws our attention to the fact that there’s something we should be doing, preparing for, or preventing. It gives us the motivation to do something.

But, the worry around the time trial race was not helpful. It was crippling my performance.

I decided to turn the worry on its head. I scheduled worry time into my day.

Scheduled worry time is a cognitive-behavioural therapy technique. Instead of resisting your worries, you are encouraged to dedicate time to work through your obsessions. The time is scheduled for the sole purpose of considering what is causing you to feel anxious, nervous, or concerned.

How You Can Apply It

The unfortunate truth is we will never be able to completely stop worrying. But, we can learn to worry better.

Scheduled worry time is a three-part process:

Worry awareness: The first step is to recognize and label your worrying thoughts. This process is called mindfulness. Mindfulness is being aware of what is happening in the present moment, in this case, noticing your worrying thoughts. The more you intentionally try to notice your thoughts, the easier the process will become.
Worry delay: The second step is to try to disengage from your worry until a later, scheduled time. At this point, it can be helpful to note down your worry to remind you what the thought was. This is the hardest step. You believe that by worrying, you will solve or prevent from occurring that which is worrying you. But this is rarely the case.
Worry time: The third step is to use the scheduled worry time you set aside. In the 10–15 minutes you have assigned for worry, go over all the worrisome thoughts you put on hold.

For the best results, avoid doing anything else. Only work through the worrisome thoughts you noted throughout the day. Try not to engage in other activities that may distract you.

Once you re-engaged with the worries consider each of them one by one. Examine the nuances of the worries. Try to understand why they arose. Try to notice how the worries feel after you revisit them.

Scheduled worry time has three benefits:

It helps you become more mindful of the way you worry (and think).
It shows you are able to sit with any anxiety that delaying your worries may bring up.
It allows you to notice that perhaps what you thought were insurmountable worries, relative to your other worries, aren’t as big of a deal.

Getting 8 Hours of Shut-Eye

One habit tied it all together.

The ultimate performance hack. Sleep.

A regular workout routine improved the duration and quality of my sleep. I was able to fall asleep more easily and wake up feeling refreshed. It is in deep sleep that our bodies release hormones such as testosterone and growth hormone both of which are needed for muscle repair.

Sleep leads to creativity, less stress, and better performance. Sleep can help you live up to your full potential.

Sleep deprivation drains your mental abilities and puts your physical health at real risk. It can lead to impaired brain functioning, an increase in blood pressure, an increased risk of heart diseases, disruption of hormones, weight gain, and even death.

How You Can Apply It

Custom-tailor a sleep time for yourself. When it comes to sleep, the duration matters much more than the time.
Limit your caffeine intake to 6 hours before your bedtime. Caffeine can impact the onset of sleep and reduce sleep time, efficiency and satisfaction levels.
Avoid intense exercise 3 hours before bedtime. Exercise can help you feel more energised. If you find yourself pumped up after a night’s workout try exercising earlier in the day.
Avoid using your phone, t.v or ebook reader in bed. Electronic devices emit blue light; which our eyes are not good at blocking. This blue light messes with your body’s ability to prepare for sleep because it blocks a hormone called melatonin that makes you sleepy.
Take a warm bath before bedtime- it lowers your body temperature which helps you fall asleep easier.

Limit your bedroom to only sex and sleep. Our brains associate activities with places. So if you eat, work, chill, and live on your bed, there won’t be any helpful association.

5 takeaways on creating a chain reaction of habits

Use the power of your imagination. Physical creations follow mental creations.
Find a coach to work with. It will shorten your learning curve.
Share your goals with others. But, be selective with whom you do it.
Dump your thoughts. Worry serves a purpose but it is not always helpful.
Use the ultimate performance hack. You’re not what you do— you’re much more “how long you sleep”.

How I Unknowingly Set Off a Chain Reaction of Habits