Getting fit or staying active has long been seen as something that is mostly influenced by individual willpower, but growing understanding of psychology and behavioural science is changing this perception.
This evolution is coming about for good reason. Putting the emphasis on willpower can mean that your good intentions are undermined long before a habit has formed. Luckily, tapping into behavioural science-based tips and tactics can help you start and maintain good habits. These methods are especially handy for frequent travellers and or busy parents who may already have high levels of willpower, but tend to also have disruptive routines.
In this article, we look at ways to harness new research to get fit or stay active without an overreliance on willpower. Featuring insights from Rex Fan, Lead Behavioural Insights Specialist at Bupa.
There’s no magic number when it comes to forming habits
It has long been said that it takes 21 days to form a habit1. In fact, not only can it take anywhere from 66 days to five months for habits to become automatic2, recent research3 finds that when it comes to building routines, the speed of habit formation can change a lot. Rex explains that not only can it vary from person to person, but there are other big factors at play, such as the consistency of the cues in our environment and how complex the habit is.
For example, you may be able to quickly form the habit of washing your hands when visiting a hospital because the environment helps cue the habit, and the habit itself is straightforward. On the other hand, it may take months to get used to heading to the gym4, because that involves multiple habits, like picking a time, packing workout clothes and making your way to the gym.
I think it's important to understand that people with the most willpower actually use it the least. Instead, they design their environment to make it more conducive to their behaviour. They can do this by removing cues that trigger bad habits and introducing ones that trigger good ones, like keeping our gym kit ready by our bed to make it really easy to put on first thing in the morning.”
- Rex Fan, Lead Behavioural Insights Specialist at Bupa
Pick simple starting points and plan ahead
Even if you’re looking at making significant changes to your activity levels overall, always see if you can start small. While research suggests that the type of habit you’re forming is important, the way you approach it is also crucial5.
While picking a simple and achievable aim to focus on first gives you the opportunity to enjoy a quick win, this research strongly suggests that being intentional about starting a new habit and taking ownership of what it is and how you’ll achieve it means you’re more likely to enjoy success6. According to Rex, we're more likely to follow through with a behaviour if we make a detailed plan. There’s a big difference between “I will schedule in more time to exercise” versus “I will schedule in 30-mins at the end of Monday, Wednesday and Friday for a workout”.
Writing these plans down can also help. Whether that’s putting a reminder in our calendar, signing a contract with ourselves, or even just sharing our plans with someone else. Rex explains that while it might sound silly, experiments show that this kind of commitment helps people keep going. Research also suggests that structured planning and monitoring your progress can help boost habit formation and that repetition reinforces good habits, making them feel easier over time7.
It’s a good idea to avoid setting unrealistic goals that can lead to avoidance and make it very difficult to commit to a new routine, no matter how strong your willpower may be8. Being patient and persistent will help solidify behaviour – and help you feel more positive about yourself and the things you’re trying to achieve.9
Incorporate mindfulness training
The link between mind and body is undeniable and recent research suggests that there are new ways to harness this connection. The Centre for Motivation and Behaviour Change at the University of Bath recently completed a study where they trialled combining step tracking with mindfulness training. While it was a small study group, the findings suggest that mindfulness apps can support the desire to exercise.10
The study asked two groups of people to attempt 8,000 steps a day using a basic tracker. One group used the tracker alone, the other used it alongside a mindfulness app. While both groups became more active overall, the researchers found that those who took part in mindfulness training had stronger intentions to stay active once the study was over.
Harnessing digital apps that tap into the way our brains work could support and strengthen our internal drivers. It could also bring some additional mental wellbeing benefits such as reducing anxiety and depression.11
Plan for potential triggers
One of the biggest challenges of building a new routine or habit is how you deal with setbacks. Missing one or two days won’t stop our new behaviour becoming automatic, but stopping entirely, definitely will. As our brain learns the new behaviour and the associations we've built in, it will get easier and easier to do – so don’t lose heart.
Setbacks are inevitable, whether it’s an unexpected stressful situation that takes up all your energy, or simply the fact that you’re travelling and away from all the cues that you used to start developing your new habits.12 The good news is that by factoring in potential problems, we can find ways to get around them.
Rex says: “Humans tend to be overly optimistic – we don’t think about what could go wrong and therefore fail to plan ahead. ‘If-then planning’ is a technique we can use to help us think about potential barriers and make contingency plans so we can stick with our healthy habit.”
We can do this by thinking about things that could take us off track, (the ‘if’) and plan how we will fit our new behaviour in (the ‘then’). For example, “If I’m travelling, then I will swap my gym classes for runs around the neighbourhood” or “If I have a big project at work, then I’ll scale back my exercise routine on purpose until things are back to normal.”
Be kind to yourself
Be self-compassionate too. Rex explains that self-compassion can lead to healthier behaviours such as diet, physical exercise, weight loss, and even sleep. For example, those of us who suffer from bedtime procrastination, can find that a little self-compassion helps regulate our negative emotions to reduce the issue.
Tapping into tips and tools that allow us to use our own psychological quirks to our advantage can be a powerful way to stay active, without the need for willpower. By forming habits successfully, the behaviours can become so natural that we don’t have to think about them or rely on motivation at all.
