The Habit Installation Method

I'd like to ship you a free copy of my book, Habits of High Performers. If you come and join the 2026 goal setting workshop, I will ship you one of these today. The link is in the notes. Please come and join me to set up the very best 2026 you could imagine. If you've set up goals in the past or New Year's resolutions and they haven't substantiated, I'm here to help you across all the key pillars of your life, nail your goals. I'll see you there. This is episode four, and today you're going to learn the habit installation method. So whether you're trying to get that dream body, stop smoking, maybe a little less drinking, changing your eating habits, reducing that debt, it doesn't matter what the habit is. This method is the very same method I used to win seven world championship titles. And you can apply this in any area of your life.

Each and every day is an opportunity to step out of bed and to perform at our best. We are a product of our microhabits. And when I think about it, you know, your micro habits equate to your macro successes. And what I mean by that is the tiny little things that you do each day, starting by making your bed, starting by not hitting the snooze button, starting by eating something healthy and nutritious, hydrating, meditating, planning, positive self talk, all those things are going to dictate your day. They're going to influence your mindset. And you compound those over a week, a month, a year, a decade, a lifetime. You're taking your trajectory in such a, a different direction. And I want you to think about the opposite of that. You know, you maybe stay up late, so then you hit snooze in the morning, you get up and feel lethargic, you make some poor choices around some nutrition. Maybe you're eating food that's not that healthy, or you're skipping breakfast, you're maybe piling in the caffeine to supercharge your day, all of that compounds and how you start your day dictates the rest of that day. So when you can be really intentional about what you do first thing in the morning, those microhabits, they have a lasting impact across the whole day, the week, the month and so forth. And the way I look at it, you know, habits, you know, from a kid, you can probably reflect yourself. You can go back and think of the habits that mom and dad wanted to try and install on you. For me, one of those was to do the dishes after A meal was made for me. So as a kid, I remember doing the dishes and fighting it out with my sister. Great memories. But those habits were things that were imparted from my parents, and they've lasted my whole lifetime. The things that I do every day, brushing my teeth again. It's one of those things, a habit that was installed from childhood. So the great thing about it is that as humans, we can install new habits anytime we want, but it takes time, it takes patience. And effectively, you're only as good as your next habit. Let's talk about habit, like length, the formation length of a habit. I remember as a kid thinking it was 21 days and then maybe 28 days. So a month, three weeks, four weeks to perform a habit and for it to be automated. Now, a recent study by the University College of London looked at habit formation of adults across a varying range of ages and different backgrounds. And they came up with 66 days as the average amount of time it took a human to install a new habit to the point of automaticity. So automaticity is the point at which that habit is performed automatically. But I want to say that I feel like habit formation, it's a lifelong thing. A habit is only a habit when you continue to perform that habit. So let's say you work out at the gym for 66 days. Is that a habit now? Yeah, only when you continue to turn up every single day. And often. I don't know about you guys, but when I look back at habits that I was trying to install, often what would interrupt those habits is a bit of adversity. Too much variety in the form of surprises. Maybe a global event, maybe a big birthday or a big holiday, where we tend to go off track with our habits. Bit of stress at work. So we need to think about, okay, every single day is an opportunity for us to continue with positive habits. And on the flip side, every single day is an opportunity for us to go off track. So I want you to think about the habit loop. It's really important before you start forming habits to think about the habit loop. Right? It's a nice, simple way of thinking about habits. So essentially, you've got a cue, okay, So a trigger. And then that sets off your intention to perform a behavior. And then after that behavior, there's a dopamine release, there's a reward. And so I want you to think about this. In fact, I did this recently. I was in a place I was unfamiliar with, in a hotel lobby and went to go to the washroom. So I opened the Door, and it was pitch black inside. There was no light on in this, this washroom. No windows. It was pitch black. Instantly I had a feeling of uneasiness. And automatically my hand started searching to the right on the wall to look for a light. And when I got the light, I flipped the switch, the light came on, the dopamine was released. I felt relieved, I felt happy. I could see where I was going, right, so that was the habit loop in action. Me walking into a dark room, that was a cue. That was a trigger to my subconscious mind going, oh, danger. This feels weird. And then an automatic behavior was performed which was me searching for the light. Once I hit the light and the light went on, then that was the reward. Like, yes, I can see. So that's a simple habit loop. And no matter what habit you perform, I want you to keep that loop in mind. There's got to be a trigger. Then of course, there's got to be a behavioral activity, the habit, and then there must, must, must be a reward. If you don't reward yourself and genuinely release that dopamine, there's no way you're going to keep up with this habit. When times get tough, and they will, hey, life gets tough, you know, everybody, globally, no matter where you're from, who you are, your sex, your ethnicity, we've all got challenges, we've all got adversity, and we all want to live the best possible life. The fact that you're listening to this podcast would say to me that you care about yourself, you care about your future, you care about the legacy that you're leaving. And your legacy is dependent on your micro habits. So I want you to think about, you know, when you're aiming for long term behavior change, you can change your environment. You know, that's one of the greatest ways to start it. So let's say it's you're trying to get super healthy. How do you change your environment? Throw away all the bags of chips, throw out all the frozen foods, get fresh, healthy food in there. No chocolate, no candy, none of the bad stuff. Maybe remove the alcohol from the shelves. Don't have those items in your vicinity, make it difficult for you to reach for those things. And when you think about it, we all want to aim for this outcome. So the outcome might be to reduce your stress or lose your weight, but don't design for the outcomes. That's designing, I think, at the wrong place. You must design the behaviors that lead to the outcomes. So focus on those behaviors. So if you want to lose weight, what are the behaviors that lead to that? Well, it's a clean diet, it's regular movement and exercise. It's all those basics, those micro behaviors, it's the commitment to going to the gym, scheduling those things, maybe having a personal trainer, maybe saying no to that third glass of wine. Right? It's design at the behavioral level rather than the outcome level. Right. So I want to share with you my exact installation process. It's my habit installation process where I'm going to help you take any habit and install it. And what I'm going to suggest is start with one habit rather than five. Often when we get excited about a new lifestyle, we often want to do four or five things. We want to stop drinking alcohol, stop drinking coffee, we want to go plant based, we want to get to the gym five times a week. And we want to remove toxic people from our lives. Right. Those are just some examples. But often we want to do them all at once. So I'm going to suggest you take one habit a month or every six weeks and just slowly implement it. That slow change is good. Slow is good. So here's the habit installation process, and this is the same one I've used to build businesses to help clients reach multimillion dollar goals. To help this exact same process, I used to win multiple world titles back when I was a drummer. So first things first, you need to write this down. Grab a pen and paper, guys. Take a couple of notes. There's going to be some valuable little nuggets here. Number one, you've got to define what the new habit actually is. So whether it be, my new habit is to go to yoga three times a week and go to the gym twice a week with a personal trainer. There's a very specific habit could be, my new habit is to stop smoking. My new habit is to save $300 a week, whatever it might be. Second, what are the exact mechanics of that new behavior? So write down exactly what that new behavior looks like. What will you do and how will you execute on it? Be really specific. Your subconscious mind loves specificity. It does not like you being general and vague. And in fact, it will just do what you ask of it. So when you're really specific, it will help you get towards that outcome in a much more efficient way. Next question you must ask yourself. The next part of that process is why must I embrace this new behavior? Please take the time to answer that question. That's one of the essential ones. If I didn't answer that, there's no way, no way I would have got close to winning any of the world titles. No way. There's no way I would have got close to launching a six figure business in under a year. Not a chance. The why drives your mission, your why drives your passion. It's so important to write down why you want this new habit. It's not going to get you there. If it's surface level, let's say it's a weight thing, a health thing. I want to look sexy. Well, that's not going to get you there. You're going to give up when the next bit of crisis comes into your life or your next big party comes up, you're going to give up next change of season. Often that's when people change their habits back to old ways. So write down a list of why. Why do you want to look sexy? Like I want to look sexy because.

When I'm 80, I want to be able to walk down the beach with my partner holding hands and have the mobility. When I'm in my 50s and 60s, I want to still be able to have fun with my kids and my grandkids and wrestle with them and go swimming. You know, when I'm later in life, I want to be able to travel and live a beautiful life. So think about all different levels of why. And some of them can be short term. I want to look in the mirror and be attracted to myself for sure. That's really, really healthy. But get that list, write it down, have your why list. Next. What's it going to cost you if you don't embrace the new habit? This is a crucial question to ask. What will it cost me if I don't embrace the new habit? Let's take smoking. What's it going to cost you? Well, it's going to cost you financially. Hundreds, if not thousands, probably of dollars across your lifetime. Tens of thousands of dollars going to cost you your health for sure. We know that. The proof is in the pudding. It's probably going to cost you some relationships. Not everyone likes being around smokers. So think about the cost of not executing on your new habit. Spiritual cost, financial cost, all of those different costs. There's physical, there's emotional. Take your time and answer that next part of the process. Really? Really. This is a key one here. What existing trigger can I perform this new habit after? So you'll have an existing trigger. This is golden. I want you to write this down after I.

I will.

Okay. So after I. And then insert an existing behavior. So brush your teeth. I hope everyone that's listening in here brushes Their teeth twice a day. Once, you know, okay, well, maybe let you away with that. But please reach for two. So after I brush my teeth, I will and then put in your new behavior that you're wanting to execute on. So after I brush my teeth, I will do an hour of yoga or after I brush my teeth, I will read a chapter of the book. Whatever your new habit you're trying to install because your new, existing. So your new behaviors, you're wanting to make it an automated behavior. You've got an existing trigger that can help you trigger this new behavior. Okay? So take the time, think of some existing things you do every day that are just autopilot and pop your new habit in after it and write that down. After I insert your existing behavior, I will insert your new habit. It's as easy as that. Nearly there, folks. Nearly there. So rewards the fun part, if you don't reward yourself, you don't complete that habit loop. The dopamine isn't released. You're not going to get addicted to this new habit. We want to form a really beautiful positive addiction and relationship to this healthy habit. So after seven days, what's your reward going to be? Come up with something fun. A new piece of clothing, a trip to your favorite restaurant, maybe a little cheat cheat meal, something exciting that you love, a book that you've wanted. And then think longer term, what will your epic reward be? After completing this habit for three months, come up with something. Maybe a weekend away somewhere to your favorite town. Maybe it'll be a movie that you've been dying to go to. Maybe it'll be a course that you wanted to sign up for or that coaching that you want, whatever it might be. Write down what your rewards are going to be that's going to release the dopamine that you're working towards these rewards. You might even have a weekly reward, right? So folks, I hope you've taken away something valuable from that. Please do share it with some friends. Feel free to share the link. And if you've learned something from this, I would love you to take a moment to just leave me a rating and review here on the podcast. I would really love. It really helps me to reach more people. But that is the habit installation process. That's how you install badass habits that last across your lifetime. I want to wish you nothing but the best and I look forward to seeing you next week. I've got an amazing guest coming up next week. I look forward to seeing you then.

Thank you so much for listening in today and investing in your own personal growth. Please hit that subscribe button and I would love, love, love if you'd leave me a rating and review as it really helps me to impact more people. I've got some amazing guests lined up in the coming weeks and folks, it's that time. Get out there and live life on purpose. Sam.