You decide you’re going to start exercising in the morning.

Monday goes great.

Tuesday, you’re still motivated.

Then Wednesday arrives.

You didn’t sleep well. It’s cold outside. There’s an early meeting, and the plan that sounded perfectly reasonable on Sunday feels negotiable.

Motivation didn’t fail you.

Wednesday showed up.

We won’t bring the same energy, discipline or enthusiasm to something every day. Yet we often build new habits as though we will.

A better approach is to give the behavior you want a little help.

Change the Setup

Want to walk in the morning? Put your shoes where you’ll see them.

Trying to read more? Keep the book within reach.

Want to save money? Automate part of it.

Need fewer distractions while working? Move the phone far enough away that reaching for it requires a decision.

None of these things is remarkable.

Thay’s why they work.

We spend a lot of time asking ourselves to be more disciplined while leaving the old behavior incredibly convenient.

Make the choice you want easier to make.

Build for Wednesday

Monday isn’t usually the problem.

Build for the tired Wednesday. The overscheduled Wednesday. The I really don’t feel like doing this Wednesday.

Your hour-long workout may become ten minutes.

The page you planned to write might become one paragraph.

Dinner might not look anything like the recipe you saved, but you still make a choice that moves you in the direction you wanted to go.

A smaller version still counts.

So does returning after you’ve missed a day.

In fact, learning to return may be more valuable than learning to never miss.

Stop Making Change Harder Than It Needs to Be

There’s no extra credit for unnecessary struggle.

If moving something, scheduling something, preparing something or removing a distraction makes the behavior easier to repeat, do it.

Save your effort for the parts that genuinely require effort.

Look at one habit you’ve been trying to build.

What keeps geeting in the way?

Change one thing around it.

Then see what happens on Wednesday.