GA 563 | Habits Over Resolutions with Ron Pereira

Hey, everyone, this is Ron Pereira with Gemba Academy. And today I'm gonna talk to you by myself. Not gonna be a normal podcast with a guest. Had some things on my mind here as we're into the new year 2025 and wanted to just kind of share some thoughts on. On something that I think is often overlooked. So this episode's coming out, you know, a couple weeks into. Into the New Year, and many people, I don't know how listeners, what percentage of you have created New Year's resolutions, but I bet a lot of people have. I mean, most people have some idea of what they want to accomplish in the New year, and many times they're, they're formed as resolutions. And sadly, there's actually a statistic that says that the majority. I can't remember the exact percentage, but the majority of New Year's resolutions fail by the. I think it's the second Friday of every year. So this year would have been January 10th. What just, just happens when I think this episode comes out on the 16th. So if you had a New Year's resolution and you haven't failed at it yet, you're ahead of the game. You made it through what they call Quitters day, which is January 10 this year. But if you're like some people or like many people, I would say, and I've been included in this as well, so I'm not judging by any means if you fail, you know, don't despair. There's. There's time to, to pick things back up. But what I want to talk about today is sort of like why I personally believe resolutions fail and why I believe focusing on habits over resolutions is really the way to go. We've talked about habits quite a bit over the years here on the podcast. In fact, we had James Clear, who wrote the book Atomic Habits, on the podcast, I guess a few years, I believe was episode 261. Maybe we can link that up in the show notes. But if you haven't read the book Atomic Habits, I highly encourage you to read it. But also, James did a fantastic job in episode 261 of literally walking through the whole book. It's almost like a sort of an abridged audiobook of his ideas on what habits are and how they're formed and that sort of thing. But I'm going to break this episode today up into sort of like four parts. Part one, I want to spend some time on why I believe resolutions fail. Part two will be sort of the power of habits and why we should be Thinking. In my opinion, we should be thinking about habits more than resolutions. And then part three, we'll talk a little bit about developing new habits and sort of lean thinking, like how they kind of play together, because I believe there's a strong parallel between lean thinking and habit generation. And then finally in sort of part four, we will talk about sustaining habits and what you can do to make sure that, you know, they don't fall apart. So part one here I want to talk about again. Why do resolutions fail? And well, I really believe that the problem with most resolutions is that they're too vague. For example, someone might just say, I want to lose weight, or I want to be more organized, or I want to be more kind, or I want to be more patient or something like that. And these are all well and good. There's nothing wrong with, with those as, as sort of long term goals, but they're too vague. And so as we know, within the lean world or continuous improvement world, we want to have, you know, what we call smart goals. You know, we want things that are specific and measurable and time bound and all these good stuff. So that's the problem with most resolutions, they aren't smart when they're set up. So even within the continuous improvement world, when we're talking about lean or a project, if we don't do a good job scoping the project or writing a good strong problem statement, or we don't know specifically what problem we're trying to solve, you know, we're gonna typically spin our wheels and, and eventually sort of just quit the endeavor altogether. Okay, so that's probably why resolutions fail, in my opinion, is because they're just too vague. And, or maybe you say I want to lose 10 pounds or something like that. Well, by when and you know, how much effort are you willing to put into it? And so these are the things really need to be thinking about when we're setting up these, these goals. Okay, now when we talk about habits again, check out episode 261 to hear James Clear kind of summarize Atomic Habits, the book Atomic Habits. But when we think about resolutions, they're often focused on outcomes, whereas habits focus on sort of the process. My friend Billy Taylor talks a lot about the difference between, say, a KPI or key performance indicator in KPA or a key performance action. Okay? And Billy, you know, encourages and I, and I agree that KPIs are great and we need them for sure, but you can't manage your business with KPIs. You re it's sort of like, as they used to say, trying to, if you try to run your business or try to live your life by just focused on KPIs, it's sort of like driving a car looking in the rear view mirror. So if you're driving down the road and you just try to drive by looking in their rear view mirror, that's sort of what running your business or running your life by focusing only on KPIs is like, what are you going to do? Well, you're going to crash into something eventually because you're not looking ahead. So if we focus on KPAs or key performance actions or I would encourage you to think about habits, you know, trying to develop habits, then we're looking forward. These are things that we can sort of measure and control on a daily basis and see how we're doing. And so when we do this, when we're focused in on habits over resolutions, our attention span is more focused and it's not so broad and big. Okay, so when we start with, with habits, think about again, lean principles. What are some of the things that we're doing well with lean, what do we do? We try to make, you know, Kaizen, right? Like small incremental improvements. And we know that if we make enough small improvements. Think of my friend Paul Akers in the two second lean approach. Well, what are they trying to do? Try to make small daily improvements and just eventually these things compound into this massive snowball and you've got this long term transformation. But it all started with these small improvements that we try to do every day. Okay, so habits really are, in my opinion are a similar way. So a personal story for me, like I have a. I have developed a robust habit of exercising Monday through Friday, especially during the. Sometimes in the summer it gets a little looser if we're traveling or whatnot with vacations or whatnot. But typically throughout the year, Monday through Friday, I have a really good routine of waking up at the same time. I try to wake up at 5am I'm out the door by 6:30 or so. I kind of have a morning routine with prayer and that sort of thing in my house and then I head to the gym. LA Fitness right down the road is about five minutes from my house and about, you know, six minutes from the office, that sort of thing. And I go in and exercise and I got a specific plan on that as well. I won't bore you with all the details on that. But then at the end I always sit in a sauna for 21 minutes. Why 21 minutes, while all the research says that anything over 20 minutes is beneficial. So I do 21 and then I take a cold shower, get ready for work, and I go straight to the office. So that's sort of my morning routine, but it all starts the night before. Okay. Because I've got this standard work and I feel like this is really important for habits. You need to create some standard work. And part of my standard work starts the night before and I pack my gym bag and my gym bag is the clothes that I'm going to wear to work because I, I, when I get up, I put my gym clothes on and so I go straight to the gym. And I'm already dressed for the gym, but I, I have my bag all ready to go if I, I think if I had to wait till the morning to get up and then pack my bag and all, I don't know if it would be as good. So I've just got this routine, this, that I've formed to where it starts the night before and it sets things up and I just get up and I just sort of execute the pattern from there. Okay. So that's what happens when we think about habits. You need to, you need to create sort of standard work. I think James Clear uses the example of, let's say you want to develop that maybe you don't have the habit of flossing your teeth. Okay, you should floss your teeth. People floss the teeth you want to keep, as they say. But let's say you don't have the habit. Many people don't have the habit of flossing their teeth. Okay, so what do you do? Well, James would say start with one tooth if you have to, and set the floss out where you can see it. It's right in your line of sight. So it's right next to your toothbrush and toothpaste or whatever it is. So you're creating the standard work. And then in the beginning, just start with one tooth and just do it for a week. And maybe you have a little checklist or a little post it note on your mirror where you check off that you, that you flossed your one tooth. And then next week you do two teeth and you slowly build up this habit. Okay. And you know, it all started with that sort of, that standard work approach of having that floss right by your toothbrush and that sort of thing. So these are the reasons that some habits stick is because James explains this in the podcast. But you typically have sort of a cue or something that triggers the, the activity. Then you have a routine and then you have a reward. Okay? And that's how habits are formed. And so that's what we want to be doing. So if you want to develop the, the habit of regular ex. Well, then write out, like, what does that look like? Okay. And not just that I'm going to go to the gym five days a week. That's too vague. Like, really spell it out, like, what is that going to look like on a specific day? And then practice it, run the experiment. Okay. And in my case, like, the experiment could be, well, I'm going to prepare my gym bag the night before and see if it works out. And then. Okay, well, it worked out, but now let's just see if I can wing it and not pack my gym bag the night before. And. And I wait till the day of and see if that makes it easier or harder, that sort of thing. And so you can experiment with this process of that habit to see what works and what doesn't work. So that's a little bit about habits. Again, I don't, don't mean for this to be just how to create habits. James does a much better job in episode 261. So go check that one out after this episode. Now, the next section I want to talk about is really thinking about lean and new habits. Okay. And we've already touched on some of it, but I want to sort of start at the top. One of the things that we're really big on within the lean infrastructure is defining value. Like, really what's most important to you personally? Maybe you want to develop some new habits professionally. Okay? Like, what are those things? Like, why are they valuable and what do they mean to you? And why are they worth doing for? You know, most people want to be healthy because, you know, of their family or they want to be a more productive citizen or whatever it might be. Okay, so, like, figure out, like, what's most important to you and why do you want to prove it? Like, why? Right. Like remember Simon Sinek's, you know, story, like the power of why. Without understanding why you're doing anything, it's going to be really hard to be successful because that's the first thing we want to define, value. Okay? Now the second thing that I would encourage you to do again is start small. Right? Focus is just on, on one thing. Right? And don't focus on one habit even. Right. And whether it's flossing your teeth or going to the gym or maybe you want to develop a better habit of playing with your kids when you come home from work instead of staring at your phone like a zombie. Okay, so like, what does that look like? And why do you want to do that? And so like, there's actually a, a thing that me and some guys go through every year. In fact, we're going to be starting it here on January 20th called Exodus 90 is so it's so a sort of a 90 day journey that starts, well, 90 days before Easter. And there's all these disciplines that we've got to do and things like take a cold shower and whatnot, which is a little bizarre to some people, but that's part of it. Well, one of them, one of the disciplines in Exodus 90 is no electronics unless it's for work. And boy, oh boy, this is tough for me, especially in the beginning because like, like many of you, I'm addicted to my phone and I stare at it way too much. So I come home and my son says, hey dad, let's go play basketball. And I'm like scrolling on my phone and you know, put this stupid phone down, Ron, and go play basketball. So what happens when I'm due Exodus 90, it's part of the, the program. And I've, I. Well, if I want to follow the program and do a good job with it, which I try to do, I literally come home from work and I just go put my phone on the charger because I know there's no work to be done. If I have to go check an email or something later in the night that I want to see if it's coming, I might walk into my room and check the email at my nightstand and then put it right back down. Okay. But not having it on my person makes it much easier to not fall into that trap of staring at my phone. So that's an example of starting small. If you want to get healthy or you have a health related habit that you want to develop, you know, start with switch out, I don't know, soda for water. Like just one thing, right? And, and do that and track it. Keep track of how many glasses of water you drink. And if you slip up and drink some sugary drink, like how many times did you slip up and sort of just monitor it. Okay. So that's really the third thing, is to measure your progress. Okay. And so again, back to key performance actions. This is where the KPAs come in more so than the, the KPI might be. If you wanted to lose a specific number of pounds by a specific date. Well, that's the KPI. Great. And you can, you can weigh yourself every day if you want, or once a week or whatever it might be. But the KPA is like, well, how many steps did you want to take today or over the next week? How many hours of exercise or how many calories do you want to take in? And so you start tracking these. Get the My Fitness Pal app on your phone and you start tracking all the food that you're in. These are KPA's key performance actions. And this is what you really want to be focused on as you're developing these habits. Okay, so yeah, define value, start small, measure progress. Then the fourth thing would be thinking about lean eliminate waste. Or when we think about scientific thinking or Toyota Kata, we often talk about identifying these obstacles that are in our way towards where we want to go. Go right towards that target condition, towards that short term milestone. Okay, so maybe an example like that I already talked about was how I, I prepare my gym bag the night before I go to the gym. That's a form of eliminating waste in my mind because in the morning I'd be sleepy and groggy and I'd move slow and I'm trying to be quiet so I don't wake up my wife and that sort of thing. So like I've eliminated that waste by doing it the night before. Okay, so think about, remove the struggle, like whatever it is you're trying to do. Like if you're trying to floss your teeth, like again, put the floss out where you can see it. It sounds simple, but how many of you have your floss tucked away in some drawer, right? Well, you can't see it and it's easier to forget if you're trying to develop that habit. Okay, and then the last thing that I want to talk about here from like a more of a lean perspective is to again, standardize the approach. Like literally write out. And maybe this is, kind of ties in with scientific thinking in Toyota Kata. If you're, if you're trying to build a habit or write out, like, what does that habit look like? And if you're successful, say three months from now, think about the challenge in Toyota Kata terms. In three months, I want to be able to have developed this specific habit, really be very detailed and specific of what that looks like. And then back up and figure out, like, what do I need to do on a sort of daily basis, on an hourly basis basis, and then write that down, write out this standard for how that looks. And then if there are any specific things that are time bound or that might have to happen in a specific time. Like maybe block time on your calendar. Like if I keep talking about exercises, that's the easiest one to talk about, but, you know, have a very specific time on when you're going to do it. And that way you put it on your calendar so nothing else can get scheduled on it pops up to remind you that sort of thing. Okay, so that's, that's sort of the tie in between habits and lean start. Define your value, like what's important. Start small, measure those KPAs. Figure out, like, how you're going to, you know, are you winning or losing? Right? That's like, that's what we're doing when we're sort of measuring any sort of progress. Eliminate waste and then standardize your process. Finally, in this last section, I want to really talk about sort of sustaining these habits over time. PDCA is a beautiful way to think about that, right? I mean, we plan and we define the habit and then we do, we practice the habit daily. We, we, we check, we reflect on how things are going and we adjust accordingly. Okay? What's really no different with habits and what happens with habits is when they finally do take, they become sort of automatic, right? Like, it's kind of like driving home from work. And you don't really need to think about driving home from work. In fact, there's been many times, I'm sure, where you pull up into your driveway. Maybe it was a. Or you got a lot in your mind and you pull up to the driveway and you don't even remember the drive home. Well, that's because your body and your brain has systematized that, that drive home and you don't even have to think about it. That is a definition of a habit, okay? A very strong habit. That neural pathway is burned into your brain. Okay? Well, the same thing can happen with habits. When you persevere and you practice PDCA again and again and again, eventually it becomes automatic. And flossing your teeth will become an automatic habit. And you don't even need to think about it. Okay? Going to the gym will become an automatic habit so long as you follow that standard work that you created for yourself, okay, it would become a habit. And really that's how you sustain habits. I hate talking about sustaining. And if you've been taught by me, and especially if we're talking about six sigma, I really despise the C in D make, you know, define, measure, analyze, improve, control. I think it's the worst name step in all of continuous improvement because you can't really control anything. Why? Because of the second law of thermodynamics, entropy. Entropy is always pulling. It's always trying to bring disorder into a system. Okay? And entropy is pulling on your habit of flossing your teeth or going to the gym or, you know, if you want to do more Gemba walks in the office. Well, entropy is pulling on you, trying to get you to not do that. And so really it's difficult to control anything. Instead, what you really should be focused on is how do we make it a little bit better? This is the brilliance again of my friend Paul Akers. And two second lean is that you'll never really hear them ever talking about controlling or sustaining. Why? Because they're. You're always making it better. Not a lot better, just a little better. Okay? But if you make everything just a little bit better every day or improve that habit just a little bit, then you don't ever have to worry about it falling apart. Okay? But also, I would say, I mean, I don't know how I could improve packing my gym bag the night before. I don't. I don't know how I can improve that. But again, I've got this discipline now, built this habit of doing this routine. And I've done it so much and so often that it really is an automatic thing for me. And if I ever don't do it, that is what feels weird. That is when things aren't right, okay? That's why sometimes, when again, going on family vacation or whatever and I fall out of that routine sometimes, I don't know, my days don't even feel like they go as well because I just didn't have that normal routine, okay? So anyhow, that's what I wanted to talk about today and encourage you if again, you maybe you set some resolutions or whatever and, and they haven't, maybe you, maybe you've already fallen apart on them or you're just not feeling it. Maybe you need to. Don't. I'm not saying ditch your resolution, okay? But I want you to look at your resolution potentially and maybe reshape it, reform it into a habit and then back into like, what do you need to do to make sure that that habit, you practice it on a consistent, constant basis until it becomes automatic, until that neural pathway has been so ingrained in your brain that it's not going to go away or not go away easily, okay? So anyhow, that's what I have for today. We'll get back to sort of a normal episodes here in the coming weeks. But I want. I do want to wish everybody a Happy New Year. I know there's been a couple episodes since the year turned, but really excited for 2025, for myself personally and for Gamba Academy. And even in this podcast, everything's going to keep going as it has been. And I do want to thank all of you for listening. I know we've got a lot of very loyal listeners out there and I do appreciate each and every one of you. Okay, so that's what I've got today and we'll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening. Whether you've been on the continuous improvement journey for many years or perhaps you're just getting started, Gemba Academy is here to support you. 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