Last week
- Identity – the key to change is a change at the level of identity

Today – where do you go from there? You begin to build systems of identity-based habits. You identify the behaviors/habits that will help you become the kind of person you want to be.
Ask questions like:
What are the habits of a ________? (runner, writer, leader, healthy, great friend/teacher/boss)
‘Does this behavior help me become the type of person I wish to be? Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identity?’”

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We are called to be diligent, prudent, wise, produce good works, display the fruit of self control.

Proverbs 25:28 – Like a city whose walls are broken through, is a person who lacks self-control.

Proverbs 4:26 - Ponder/Weigh/Make level the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.

Today we’re learning how to exercise diligence and self control and wisdom and how to ponder out our paths so we are not cities with broken walls.

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"Habit: A routine or practice performed regularly; an automatic response to a specific situation." – James Clear

“Any habit can be broken down into a feedback loop that involves four steps: cue, craving, response, and reward.” - James Clear

Examples
o Dark Room > Desire light > Flick switch > Room is lit
o Phone buzzes > curiosity > grab phone > satisfy craving

The purpose of every habit is to solve the problems we face.

Habit loops help by providing a framework for understanding your habits as patterns of behavior. It’s hard to break a habit if your understanding of it is, “this is just something I do, leave me alone.” Viewing your habit loops as cause-and-effect behavior patterns makes the road to habit-free living way easier to navigate.

There are 4 laws of behaviour change that we can use to create good habits and break the bad ones.

To start good habits, we need to make them 1) Obvious, 2) Attractive, 3) Easy, & 4) Satisfying

To break bad habits you invert the 4 above. Make the habit Invisible, Unattractive, Difficult, Unsatisfying.

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1. Make the cue obvious
The habit needs to be effortless for us and require no active thinking.

Clarity and Deliberateness is so important
Pair new habit with specific time and location.
I will [BEHAVIOR] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].
I will meditate for one minute at 7am in my kitchen
I will exercise for 30min at 5pm in my basement
I will make my wife a cup of coffee at 7am in the kitchen

Stack your habits
You often decide what to do next based on what you have just finished doing.
One of the best ways to build a new habit is to identify something you already do each day and then tie your new behavior to it. This is called habit stacking:
After [CURRENT HABIT], I will [NEW HABIT].
When I wake up I will meditate/read my Bible
When I sit down for lunch I will say something I’m grateful for
When I get home from work I’ll change into my workout clothes
When I sit at my desk, get in my car, open or close my laptop
etc...

Make bad habit cues invisible
Edit out the cues for bad habits
Cull notifications and subscribed emails to cut down on online shopping

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2. Ignite craving by making habits attractive
- habit needs to be interesting and pleasant enough that you feel drawn to it

Link the new habit to something satisfying
- more probable behaviors will reinforce less probably behaviors
- After [HABIT I NEED], I will [HABIT I WANT]
- ex – only watch Youtube/audio book when you’re on the treadmill
- tiny rewards – after I return 5 emails I will check ESPN
- after I do one exercise I will check Facebook

Change the mindset
- one of gratitude – I get too

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3. Make the response easy

Reduce friction
Reduce the moments when you think, "Do I really want to do this or not?"
Ex. - packing your gym bag a day before you want to go to the gym
- preparing a healthy meal to make sure that you don’t order another takeaway

Design your environment to make good habits easy
“Redesign your life so the actions that matter most are also the actions that are easiest to do.” - James Clear
People who succeed are in environments where they are tempted less
- Phone somewhere else
- Router turns off at 10pm
- Automate your savings account
- Don’t waste energy fighting temptation

Downscale big habits
The secret for building a habit is to “always stay below the point where it feels like work.” James Clear
Two-Minute Rule: new habits should take less than two minutes to do.
- Scale down a habit to the first 2 mins – scale it down, master it, make it easy to get started
- Ex. – go to the gym, only allowed to stay for 5mins
- Habit has to be established before it can be optimized. You have to be showing up first
- Focus on the starting, not the finish

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4. Make the habit satisfying

Make it immediately satisfying
o "Cardinal rule of Behavior Change: What is immediately rewarded is repeated. What is immediately punished is avoided." - James Clear

Track your habits
- Tracking your habits is very satisfying – sense of accomplishment, of momentum of progress
- The reward from the previous step can be as small as the feeling of satisfaction you get from drawing a checkmark in your notebook.
- Visual measures provide clear evidence of your progress—they are obvious, attractive, and satisfying.

Able to say, I am _____(identity)
- Reinforcement of your desired identity
- Just by doing the thing reinforces your identity


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Encouragement

Commit to the process. A lot of the work and effort that you put in is being stored. The work isn't wasted, it's being stored.
The best outcomes are delayed.
Your obedience and faithfulness are growing strong roots.

You are not as hopeless as you think. Getting unstuck can be as simple as a few tiny, well thought out habits.

You are not alone. If you invite him to be, God's Spirit will help you.

God’s desire is to get you unstuck. He created you to do good works. He has not given up on the plan.

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Ephesians 2:10 NASB
As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath. 4 But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. 6 And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. 8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.