Dear Human 💕,

While sipping your morning coffee you reviewed your goals and now you are looking like Grumpy Smurf.

You keep setting some of the same goals month after month, and over and over again you don’t meet them. How does that keep happening?

• Go on a walk three times a week
• Lift weights three time a week
• Post once a week on that professional networking site

That really doesn’t sound too hard. You’re telling yourself that you should have been able to meet those goals. And you’re beating yourself up, convinced you don’t have the willpower to follow through on the things you decided are important to you.

Meow. Yelling at yourself that you have to meet those goals is not helping you. Your brain doesn’t like being told what to do. Your brain only goes so far on willpower. You can get it to go really far, though, if you make things easy and give it plenty of dopamine, the reward chemical.

Work with your brain and not against it!

See it.
Put a reminder somewhere you can’t miss. A sticky note on your screen. Your walking shoes by the door. A water bottle on the counter. If you don’t see it, it’s easy to forget about it.

Want it.
First, remind yourself why you want to do this. I know that is often not enough in the moment. So, add something to look forward to. Listen to your favorite podcast on your walks (and only then). Or always go for a walk with the other human so you can chat. That also makes it harder to bail out. You can’t let the human down, right?

Make it easy.
Not “walk three miles.” Just “walk around the block.” Two minutes count. Once you’re out the door, the hard part is already over. At the end of the block, you might even feel like walking more.

Feel good about it.
Give yourself a little “yes!” the second you’re done. Your brain wants proof it was worth it. Give it some dopamine! It will make it want to do it again. A checkmark, a fist pump, or a treat. Then keep track of what you did. Your brain loves collecting evidence that you’re making progress.

You always give me treats when I catch the red dot. And I want to catch the dot again! I caught it 7 times this month.

I hate to admit this, but you can learn a lot from a famous bird. That green owl really knows how to do it!

(Your Spanish is making progress.)

• You can’t miss it on the home screen of your phone. It even claims it misses you?! Meow.
• It lets you go in less than 2 minutes, if you want.
• It celebrates any progress. Even the tiniest bit.
• It gives you gems and badges and puts you on top of a leaderboard for all the other humans to see.
• It makes you stay by doubling your rewards and handing you quests.
• And of course, it keeps track of your daily streak. If you don’t show up, you’ll lose it. Humans hate losing anything.

That is how you make it stick.

See it. Want it. Make it easy. Feel good about it.

Yours,
Cat 🐾

P.S. When you made it stick, you put yourself on autopilot. After a while, you won’t have to think about it anymore. You’ll just do. Behavioral scientists call the small automatic actions habits. Read more about building good habits and breaking bad ones in James Clear’s Atomic Habits.

P.P.S. Another trick is to pair the new thing with something you’re already doing. That’s called Habit Stacking. Always go on a walk right after lunch. Nothing to decide. Go.