In my experience, we tend to start a new habit with the end in mind. We think about what we expect that the new habit will get for us and what it will mean about who we are.

When you have reached your goal of embedding your new habit, what do you expect will be different? What do you expect you will have more of – and less of?

For me, I expected that meditation would help me to feel less stressed and more calm, more confident, and more resilient.

I think it’s essential to get clear on exactly what you want – and even more importantly, why you want it. But before delving into the reasons why you want to implement a change, I think there’s another step that needs to happen.

If you were heading out on a road trip, you need to tell your GPS the exact details of where you’re going if you expect to get clear directions about how to get there. But for your GPS to work, it also needs to know the details of where you are right now, where you’re starting from.

Having a clear picture of where you are starting from is helpful to use as a baseline to measure yourself against as your new habit develops.

After 5 years of consistently meditating, it’s relatively easy to see how I’ve changed. But in the beginning the changes were gradual and it wasn’t always easy to notice the subtle differences. My recommendation is to write a list of the changes that you expect to get from your new habit in terms of how you look, feel and behave. For each of these, also write a description or measure of where you are currently.

2. Get clear on your why.

Once you have your list of where you are and where you want to be, you can start thinking about the reasons why each change is important to you. Motivation falls into two categories – you’re either motivated to move towards something that you want or away from something that you don’t want.

For each change that you wrote on your list, go as far as you can in considering why it’s important to you. For example, if (like me) you expect that meditating regularly will help you to feel more calm – why is that important to you? If you expect that exercising consistently will give you more energy – why is that important to you?

When you come up with an answer, check to see if there’s a deeper reason underneath. For example, if having more energy is important to you because it means you can spend more time playing with your kids – why is that important to you?

Having awareness of what drives you will help in many ways as you go through the process of change. From a neuroscience perspective, it will make the change process easier if you are able to link the new behaviour to the values that already hold a lot of meaning for you.

3. Think about the ways that you can make things easier.

Developing a new habit is not easy – but you can make it easier. Remind yourself that it’s not about being perfect, it’s about getting things going.

I knew that meditation was a habit that would be beneficial for me for a loooong time before I actually started doing it. There was no shortage of meditation teachers who were well trained and well experienced to learn from. But when I found a teacher that I really resonated with – someone who I could relate to, someone who I felt I could trust, someone that I genuinely liked – it helped me to finally make the commitment to start.

What kind of support and resources do you need to implement your new habit? Do you need to find a teacher, mentor, coach or other professional to work with? What do you need to ask for from your family, friends, colleagues or other support networks? What other resources do you need before you get started?

I remember when I first started my meditation training, my teacher did a great job of explaining the meditation guidelines that she had developed and why she believed that each guideline is important. However, she also helpfully (and correctly) pointed out that there were no meditation police that were going to come and knock on my door if I chose to modify (or even ignore) one of the guidelines!

Sure, there are legitimate rules that you need to stick to in some cases (I’m thinking of laws, regulatory requirements and ethical and moral guidelines) – and sometimes it’s OK to give yourself permission to make up your own ‘rules’.

What are the ‘rules’ or the things that you think you ‘should’ do or ‘need’ to do to create your new habit? Which ones are really essential – and which ones can you modify or ignore to make things easier for yourself?

What other ways can you make taking action even easier?

4. Be consistent.

It seems simple, but the way that any behaviour becomes a habit is by doing it consistently. If it’s helpful, I prefer to define doing something consistently as doing it more often than not (rather than it necessarily being something that you always do).

My top tips for being consistent are scheduling, habit stacking and tracking.

Scheduling – put your new habit into your calendar the same way you would for a work meeting, a doctor’s appointment or a play date for your kid. Scheduling it in signifies that you’ve made a commitment to doing it. And you no longer need to rely on remembering to do it each time, or ‘finding the time’ to do it.

For me, I found that the first meditation session was easy to get done because I did it straight after I got out of bed. Scheduling definitely helped me to get the second session done consistently.

Habit stacking – this essentially means pairing your new habit with a behaviour that you already do habitually. You simply take advantage of your current habit by adding the new behaviour either directly before or afterwards.

Tracking – research shows that tracking behaviour can increase the likelihood that a habit will become established. You can use an app, a habit tracker like this, or create your own way to keep track. The easier, the better!

5. Notice your progress and celebrate how far you’ve come.

I believe in celebrating your progress at any stage, but it’s especially beneficial at the start. Recognising your effort and your progress helps to reinforce why your goal is important to you and it helps you to maintain momentum. With my meditation practice, because it was twice daily, I found that even if I missed the second session once or even twice a week, I could still celebrate the fact that I’d meditated 12 or 13 times for the week. That was a LOT more than the zero meditations a week I’d been doing before.

In the beginning, take the time to acknowledge and celebrate each small step and each mini milestone. My advice on the best way to celebrate? Exactly the way that you like to!

Click here to see the celebration of my 5 year meditation anniversary.

After a few months of consistent effort with your new habit, check in against your baseline measurement list. Notice what and how you’ve changed in just a few months. Set yourself a reminder to check back in after a few more months to track your progress.

I also have found it helpful to consider the greater impact of the progress I’ve made. What are the changes that have happened in other areas of my life because of this specific behaviour change? What changes have I noticed in the people and the environment around me because of the changes I’ve made?

Creating a new habit is not easy. It takes effort and focus and commitment (and recommitment!), especially at the start. You can make it easier though. Follow my 5 tips and you’ll be enjoying all the benefits of your new habit before you know it.