Chase Skills, Not Habits

The benefit of one month programming to develop skills. Special discount offered at end of article.

Habit Formation

How long does it take to establish a new habit?

66 days is a common answer you’ll receive thanks to the hallmark study on habit formation by Phillippa Lally and colleagues in 2009. In this study, participants chose particular eating, drinking, or behavior activities to carry out daily while completing a developed self-assessment tool to measure habit strength. On average, subjects took a little over two months to develop their chosen habits, however, there was significant variation. The average of 66 days fell within a range of 18 to 254 days. Reported reasons for the variation included behavior complexity, individual variability, environment stability, and perceived reward immediacy.

I find the data around the range to be more helpful than the average. It makes sense that complex behaviors take more time to become ingrained than simple ones. Individual variability based on age, ability, personality, relevancy, motivation, support, and more will all play into efficiency of habit creation. Dynamic environments are obviously going to be more challenging than stable ones. Subjective and objective satisfaction associated with a new behavior generally makes its creation more likely.

This knowledge helps to set realistic expectations around habits. We can’t just suck it up for 66 days and expect to become a different person. That fad diet you don’t like, complex workout program, or desirable personality trait won’t be forged into your system on a time-based scale.

Opposed to how long a habit will take, a better question is whether or not a desirable habit aligns with one’s values, priorities and current skills?

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Habits Are Just Developed Skills

When I differentiate a habit from a skill, I like to reference Noel Burch’s four stages of competence model. His simple framework describes four different stages of skill development that can be applied to anything in life:

Unconscious incompetence: We don’t know what we don’t know. We are inept and unaware of it.

Conscious incompetence: We know what we don’t know. We start to learn at this level when awareness of how inept we are shows how much we need to improve.

Conscious competence: Try the skill out, actively experiment, and practice it. We now know how to do the skill the right way, but we need to think and work hard to do it.

Unconscious competence: If we continue to practice and apply the new skills, eventually we arrive at a stage where they become easier, and given time, even natural.

Skills represent conscious competence in a particular domain while habits are subconscious application of developed skills.

Competency in a skill can be obtained far more efficiently than development of a habit. Relevant skill development is also essential for eventual habit creation.

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Magic of a Month

We are a culmination of our skills.

With a little discipline, conscious competence can be achieved in a month for any basic skill. Physiologic adaptations in the mind and body don’t take long for one who is consistent and intentional.

Four weeks is just long enough to experience productive change while determining if these adaptations are something you want to continue pursuing. You may not reach sustained subconscious competence, but you’ll acquire wisdom on the pros and cons of a particular skill.

Anyone can implement a training program for four weeks. Reflection after developing basic competence is key:

Does the skill add value to your life?

Is it something you want to continue?

Can it be molded into other habits?

Do you want to progressively improve it further?

There is no one size fits all program for self-improvement. The concepts can be applied generally but the application must be done specifically.

Implementing systematic programs that specifically and progressively develop a skill are how conscious competence can be acquired in any domain. This is initially best done with guidance as you determine success, direction, and eventual ability to create your own programs. The reflective questions then address the real opportunity to change your life and determine if continued work is worthwhile.

This type of programming and reflection is how we make habits naturally. Remove the pressure and unrealistic time constraints to achieve success.

Process-related goals make worthwhile habits a by-product following desired skill acquisition.

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Proof of Concept

In the past six months, I’ve tested this method physically on myself for multiple skills. It has led to significant improvements in many areas:

• I improved my personal best wall sit time from 3:30 to 6:10.

• I improved my personal best 30 rep burpee time from 53 seconds to 48 seconds.

• I improved my personal best 300 rep air squat time from 6:54 to 4:59 following shoulder surgery.

This all came from simple daily challenges that systematically and progressively hardened over the course of the month.

I’ve also applied this framework to people I’m working with. Some examples of requested programs include:

• Doing an unassisted pull-up

• Intentional breathing exercise development

• Plank holds for time

• Stress management strategies

• Tinnitus reduction

• Public speaking

• Difficult conversations

• Balance improvement

• Lower back pain reduction

The beauty of all of these systems I create is that they rarely require more than 5-10 minutes of focused effort a day. Programs are tailored to current skill level so starting point and progression only presents mild challenges especially when modifications and other considerations are always optional.

Becoming more comfortable with what initially causes mild discomfort is the path to progressive development.

The intentional stress challenge series I write always provides the conceptual framework that I use to develop programs. Specific application to an individual comes from my one-on-one options.

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Special Offer

In order to increase access to anyone interested, I’ve recently updated the offered features in each of my tiers:

For $5/month, you’ll unlock exclusive offers and subscriber-only posts to include:

• Resilience-building challenge series, workouts of the week, masterclasses, and more.

• Full archive of past posts with personal recommendations from me based on your interests.

Sign up for the annual membership and also receive:

• 15-minute call and a personalized 4-week skill development program.

Become a founding member for personal access to me and programs designed for you:

• Quarterly 30-minute call to determine practical strategies to improve performance in any realm producing stress.

• Personalized skill development programs to build resilience in multiple domains following each call.

• Personalized intentional stress challenge post that will be crafted based on your unique goals.

I’m decreasing the cost of my annual membership to $40 for the first 20 people who sign up.

I’ve worked 1:1 with thousands of individuals in healthcare, military, and leadership positions.

Guiding people in improving individual resilience and life trajectory is what I do.

Productive change is simple, not easy. My mission is to make self-improvement an enjoyable and fulfilling experience.

Identity cultivation, progressive improvement, and life fulfillment is possible for anyone willing to put in a little consistent effort.

There is no better time to make a beneficial change than now.